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At the Edge of the Pit 



BY 



MILES pOBSON, C. E. 

AUTHOR OF 

"CAUCA, THE EDEN OF THE ANDES" 

"THE RECRUDESCENCE OF THE PANAMA FAILURE" 

(1894) 

"WHERE GOLD GROWS ON COFFEE TREES" 

"THE SIN OF ELECTROLYSIS" 

"SIDE LIGHTS ON THE BATSON CASE" 

ETC., ETC. 



^ 



JULY, 1914 



E b>ls>i 



NEWS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Pasadena, California 



Copyrighted in the United States and Great Britian, 

by the Author, 

1914 



SEP30i9l4 

©CI,A380G29 



DEDICATED 

TO 

DUDLEY H. NORRIS 

My companion on certain Mexican missions, to 
whose brilliant wit, and intimate acquaintance 
with Mexico — territory, people, character, in- 
dustries, literature, language and laws — I am 
much indebted for historical data in connection 
herewith. — M. D. 



'"'' Vou shall not crucify 2is 
on a cross of gold. " 

Neither shall you prostitute 
our dignity and power. 



At the Edge of the Pit 



CHAPTER I. 

"We set up this nation and we proposed to set it up on 
the rights of man. We did not name any differences be- 
tzveeii one race and another; ive did not set up any bar- 
riers against any particular race or people, but opened 
our gates to the zvorld and said : 'All men ivho wish to 
be free, come to us and they zvill be welcome.' " — Presi- 
dent Wilson, July 4th, 1914. 

There are five human races : In Africa the Ethiopian 
or Black; in America the Indian or Red: in Asia the 
Mongolian or Yellow, including the Chinese and Japanese 
and. also in Asia, the Malays or Brown, including the in- 
habitants of British India and in Europe the Caucasian 
or White. 

At the time the Declaration of Independence was 
adopted all the representatives of the Ethiopian race in 
the United States were slaves of the whites. These slaves 
or their fathers had been seized in their native Africa, 
brought to America and sold into slavery, which con- 
tinued for nearly a century more until they were freed 
by a Republican president. Ever since their emancipation 
and at the present time, in states dominated by the Dem- 
ocratic party all persons of African blood are disfran- 
chised, not by law, but in fact. 

The Indians were here when the whites came, in full 
possession of their territory and occupied with their own 



8 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

pursuits. They have been exterminated by the whites and 
today by a long course of decisions of the United States 
courts the Indians do not own their lands, cannot sell or 
convey them and are included in a political class with mi- 
nors, convicts and insane who have no civil rights. 

The Asiatic races are practically excluded from this 
country and those here are in many states prohibited 
from owning land, from acquiring American citizenship 
and from other civil rights and thus out of the five races 
into which human beings are divided, four of them have 
met at the hands of the American people, with slavery, 
disfranchisement, extermination, exclusion and denial of 
the ordinary personal property and political rights en- 
joyed by "Americans." It is a fact too clear for argu- 
ment that this is a white man's country and a white man's 
government and that other races, black, yellow, red and 
brown are not welcome. 

Mr. Wilson touches on the Mexican question and says : 
"Eighty-five per cent of the Mexican people have not 
been allowed to have a look-in in regard to their Govern- 
ment and the rights which have been exercised by the 
other 15 per cent. Do you suppose that circumstance is 
not sometimes in my thoughts ?" 

These people disqualified are Mexican Indians but they 
are not disqualified by law any more than the negroes of 
Louisiana, Mississippi and other southern states under 
Democratic control are disqualified by law, whereas un- 
der the government of Mr. Wilson, American Indians do 
owe their disqualifications to positive statutory enact- 
ments. If Mr. Wilson's bosom, like Mr. Devery's of New 
York, is agitated by sympathy for the "down-trod," let 
him begin his charitable work at home among his own 
American Indians before going abroad for objects of 
sympathy. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 9 

In his interview with Sam Blythe in the Saturday Ev- 
ening Post of Way 25th, 1914, Mr. Wilson said: "We 
shall not demand a foot of territory nor a cent of money 
— except, of course, the settlement of such claims as may 
justly be made by American citizens for damages to their 
property during these disturbances. There will be no 
money demand in a national sense." 

In the Niagara Falls mediation, Mr. Wilson repeated 
that there would be no indemnity demanded of Mexico, 
meaning, as before, that no national indemnity would be 
demanded for the expenses of the army and navy in oc- 
cupying the Gulf Ports ; but he emphatically says in the 
Blythe interview, that- individual losses must be paid and 
he repeats this in his Fourth of July oration in these 
words : "You hear a great deal stated about the prop- 
erty loss in Mexico, and I deplore it with all my heart. 
Upon the conclusion of the present disturbed conditions 
in Mexico undoubtedly those who have lost property 
ought to be compensated." 

Mexico and the Mexicans are welcome to such slight 
comfort as they may get from Mr. Wilson's pretty talk 
about the rights of man ; but they must consider as omi- 
nous the threats contained in Mr. Wilson's two utterances 
quoted above that the losses of property due to the Mex- 
ican revolution must be paid. 

It is well known that before the Madero revolution, 
foreigners ow^ned by far the greater part of the capital in- 
vested in Mexico and that the part owned by Mexicans 
was almost wholly in real property, so that it is the literal 
truth that the business of Mexico was in the hands of 
foreigners. Notwithstanding these immense interests the 
foreigners had no voice in the conduct of public affairs 
and have since been absolutely powerless to defend their 
property, their liberty or even their lives against any 



10 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

Mexican influence or person, whatever, who may have 
the means and disposition to injure them. 

There are, more or less, 14,000 miles of railroad in 
Mexico mortgaged to foreigners as security for money 
loaned and in the public disturbances of the past three 
years the value of this security has been almost totally 
destroyed. The right of way has been torn up for forti- 
fications, the rails have been heated in fires made of their 
own ties and bent and twisted past any further useful- 
ness. The stations, warehouses and bridges have been 
looted, burned or dynamited. The rolling stock and en- 
gines have been misused and destroyed. There is no 
longer any railroad trafific in Mexico and no pretense of 
meeting financial obligations in the payment of interest 
on the money lent. 

In like manner prosperous enterprises throughout 
Mexico, ranch, mine, factory, commercial and other in- 
dustrial investments made by foreigners are ruined and 
looted. Cattle are driven ofif. Horses and other personal 
belongings that strike the fancy of the raiders are taken. 
Men are insulted and murdered. Women are outraged 
and wanton destruction of houses, machinery and im- 
provements of all kinds goes on without interference and 
the vital question now is, not some fine point of interna- 
tional law, not as to firing a salute, but who is to be held 
accountable for all this injury? Who is going to pay the 
bill? 

Mr. Wilson has twice said that these losses ought to be 
compensated ; but by whom and how ? The losses will be 
perhaps some $700,000,000. Must these fall upon the 
original sufiferer? Must the Mormon of Sonora go back 
to his looted and burned ranch and begin again from the 
ruins and rebuild with the chance of being compelled to 
flee for his life a few vears hence when another revolu- 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 11 

tion breaks out? Must the miner pump out his flooded 
mine, retimber his shafts and drifts, renew his rusted 
machinery and rebuild his reduction works, ready for the 
next self-proclaimed provisional president to lay waste? 
Must the railroad bond-holder rebuild and restock the 
railroads that do not belong to him in order to save some- 
thing of his money lent? If not, who will pay? Will 
Congress consider that such an obligation springs from 
the Monroe Doctrine? Such a law would not get fifty 
votes. Will Congress pay the bill and charge it to Mex- 
ico? No such thing is possible. Mexico would repudiate 
the obligation and she could not pay if she wanted to. 
The situation is not entirely new. We had some such an 
experience in 1847. We were in possession of a consider- 
able part of Mexico then and, by reason of our occupa- 
tion of the Capital City of Mexico, in constructive pos- 
session of the entire country. 

When Japan at the Portsmouth Conference claimed 
certain territory and an indemnity, the point was raised 
that no claim could be made unless based upon actual oc- 
cupation of the territory claimed. The same point came 
up in the conference that followed the Russian war 
against Turkey and it is a well recognized principle. If 
we occupy Mexico City and keep it, that objection will 
not be urged and the programme of 1848 will serve for 
the new performance ; but if we establish peace without 
occupying the City of Mexico, or if we evacuate after oc- 
cupation, how shall we compel payment of our bill for 
damages? Mr. Wilson has declared most emphatically 
that we will not wage a war of conquest and he undoubt- 
edly thinks he means it, but incidentally, after the battle 
of Cerro Gordo, in 1847, General Scott in a proclamation 
issued to the people of Mexico assured them, that he zvas 
not fighting against the people of Mexico but only against 



12 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

their bad rulers. This proclamation was considered a 
wonderful stroke of diplomacy on General Scott's part. 
At any rate he went on to Puebla and the City of Mexico 
and before he left that city the bad rulers of Mexico had 
been fined, more or less, half the national domain and the 
United States had, counting Texas, doubled its area at 
Mexico's expense. 

In considering our relations with Mexico three ele- 
ments must be kept in view : the character of the Mexi- 
can Indian, who after all comprises 15,000,000 out of 18,- 
000,000 of the entire population of that country; the 
Spanish character and last, but not least, the Anglo- 
Saxon. Any one who really is acquainted with Mexico 
must realize that the Mexican Indian is just about the 
same as he was before Cortez landed on Mexican soil. 
He was not a Christian then and he cannot be called a 
Christian now. He is no more of the Christian religion 
than is the negro of Louisiana or the West Indies, the 
blanket Indian of our own western plains or the Chinese 
member of the Sunday School with the pretty teacher. 
Their relisfion is a form of semi-idolatrv at the best. 
True, there is in Mexico a splendid Catholic hierarchy 
that up to a century ago was omnipotent in every depart- 
ment of life ; but the poor Indian was no part of it any 
more than was the earth it rested on. There is only the 
fact that he has been baptized that gives any claim at all 
that he is a Christian. 

In 1529, a Flemish monk, Peter of Ghent, said that he 
and another monk had converted 200,000 Mexicans, their 
ordinary work running as high as 10,000 in a single day. 
A few years after the conquest the monks reported the 
number of converts as 4,000,000. In the mountains not 
far from Mexico City can be seen today white worn as 
mourning; fireworks at funerals, tinsel crowns and fan- 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 13 

tastic colored shrouds upon the dead and grotesque cere- 
monials on festive occasions that belonged to the ancient 
Aztec religions. At Christmas they enact the actual birth 
of Jesus. Mary appears, evidently about to become a 
mother, and after a triumphal procession the priest takes 
from beneath her skirts the infant Jesus, in swaddling 
bands, who is first placed upon the altar and then march- 
ed around the church. 

An essential element of the Spanish character is 
cruelty. Cortez and his followers invaded and possessed 
the territory of the Mexicans, occupied their cities, took 
away their treasures, ravished their daughters, extermi- 
nated the resisting and converted, baptized and enslaved 
the survivors. The natives were held as the merest serfs 
and slaves, having no rights that a Spaniard was bound 
to respect. With the grant to Cortez of a vast tract of 
land near Cuernavaca was included, in so many words, 
the gift of 100,000 peons, over whom he had the power 
of life and death. 

There remains the Anglo-Saxon, the corner stone of 
whose character is hypocrisy. Where the Spaniards sent 
their soldiers first and followed them up with their 
priests, we send our missionaries first and later on our 
soldiers. The savage is first converted and then con- 
quered. He first comes to Jesus and then to John Bull. 
As Joseph Choate said, the Pilgrim Fathers on landing 
on Plymouth Rock, first fell upon their knees and then 
they fell upon the aborigines. And the most delicious 
part of it is the unconsciousness of the Anglo-Saxon of 
this trait of his character, due largely to a defective sense 
of humor and partly to the deadening efifect of having 
been born that way. It is like garlic to an Italian. He 
has it every meal ; he smells of it ; but he is entirely un- 
conscious of it. So when Mr. Wilson begged Congress 



14 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

with tears in his voice to repeal the free canal tolls and 
alleged certain foreign diplomatic complications as his 
reason and afterward admitted that there were no such 
complications, he must not be charged with dishonesty 
nor in the alternative with lack of intelligence. He is a 
true Anglo-Saxon and when he says a thing, for the mo- 
ment he honestly thinks that he believes it. The French 
have never understood our real honesty of purpose and 
they call England "Albion perfide." 

The Abbe Domenech, a French attache of the court of 
the Mexican Emperor Maximillian, said that the English 
and the Americans had identical policies. In questions of 
honor and humanity that did not touch their interests 
they did not interfere ; but in questions purely political or 
of national sympathy there was a great deal of noise but 
no drawing of the sword, but merely menace or conces- 
sion according to the interest of the moment. Of the 
Americans he said that they knew how to clear up a 
country, to cultivate land, to make machines, as they do 
not in Europe ; and further, that when the English prime 
minister took snuff the Washington cabinet sneezed. 

Mr. Wilson said in the Blythe interview : "To some 
extent the situation in Mexico is similar to that in France 
at the time of the Revolution. There are wide differences 
in many ways, but the basic situation has many resem- 
blances." It is not only similar to the French Revolution. 
It IS the French Revolution revived. 

When the scientific expeditions were started on their 
way to rifle the ancient pyramids and royal tombs of 
Egypt, they made many wonderful discoveries. It was 
said that grains of wheat that had been buried with the 
dead were taken from the sepulchres and had sprouted 
and borne fruit after thousands of years of burial and 
fears were aroused that perhaps germs of diseases of 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 15 

which the buried kings had died might still have the 
power to reproduce among the highly scientific and re- 
spectable grave robbers the plagues of the Pharoahs. For- 
tunately this did not come to pass and these worthy gen- 
tlemen were reserved for a less poetic fate. The Ameri- 
cans are responsible, however, for preserving in accessi- 
ble form the microbes of the French Revolution which 
have innoculated Spanish America as they issued in a 
cloud from the opening of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence in countries south of the Rio Grande. 

The sentiment among all good Americans toward the 
Declaration of Independence is a sort of fetichism, as the 
essence of Americanism, whereas we have our doubts 
about the Constitution, judging from the unceasing at- 
tempts to change it. We look upon it as all good Chris- 
tians look upon the Old Testament. We all believe in it, 
we are ready to fight for it,, but very few read it. Not 
one American in ten thousand ever read the Declaration 
all through, and ninety-nine out of a hundred will quote 
its best known phrase, "All nwn are created free and 
equal." Most of the indictment part of the Declaration 
was the work of Benjamin Franklin. The introduction 
contains certain political doctrines generally supposed by 
all good Americans to have been original with Thomas 
Jefferson. As a matter of fact Jefferson took his ideas 
from Jean Jacques Rousseau, a brilliant Frenchman 
whose writings were most potent factors in the French 
Revolution. Jefferson first published the substance of the 
Declaration in 1774 and afterwards worked the same ma- 
terial into the Declaration two years later, a good deal 
like his great disciple Mr. Bryan, now Secretary of State, 
did with the Crown of Thorns and Cross of Gold, made 
them do double duty. 

Rousseau's most famous followers were Robespierre, 



16 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

the monster of the French Revokition, Jefferson and 
Theodore Roosevelt. Rousseau wrote on every topic un- 
der the sun and he had an adoring pubHc to read his 
work. He urged, among other things, that French moth- 
ers nurse their babies, anticipating much of Roosevelt's 
writings on race suicide. When the Philadelphia conven- 
tion, consisting largely of slave holders, decreed that all 
men were created equal it was not merely intended to 
mean that all men stood equal before the law ; but it was 
an emphatic acceptance of the account of the creation as 
contained in the first chapter of Genesis. Man was cre- 
ated. In the language of the Bible, "Let us make man in 
our image, after our likeness" and instantly where there 
had been nothing the moment before, there stood Adam, 
freshly created and, according to the Declaration, en- 
dowed by his creator, presumably at the instant of crea- 
tion, with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, among 
other assets, such as tonsils and a veriform appendix, 
which, not mentioned by Mr. Jefiferson in his list, were 
undoubtedly among those present. In France, eighteen 
years after the Declaration was adopted Robespierre, 
Rousseau's great disciple, caused to be enacted a law de- 
creeing the immortality of the soul and another affirm- 
ing the existence of the Supreme Being which was for- 
mally proclaimed and ratified on June 8th, 1794, in the 
city of Paris with great ceremony and known as the 
Feast of God at which Robespierre officiated as Pontiff. 
One unfortunate phrase in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence is that governments derive their just powers 
froin the consent of the governed, and it is the unanimous 
belief throiigJi all Spanish America, that this means that 
if you don't like the existing government the Declaration 
of Independence is your warrant for revolting. That one 
phrase is a true Pandora's box and infinite loss, discord. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 17 

strife, bloodshed and war have been caused in Spanish 
America by it. There is only one other phrase like it. An 
old father of the church once exclaimed that the words 
"Search the Scriptures" had undone the World, meaning 
that thereby unbelief had been caused on the part of the 
searchers. Is it true that government derives its just 
powers from the consent of the governed ? Consider the 
case of a state's prison, and surely that is a part of gov- 
ernment, or a regiment of conscripts enlisted against 
their will. Does the warden of the prison or the colonel 
of the regiment derive his just powers, or any powers 
at all, from the consent of his men ? Absolutely not. The 
poor devils have no choice. Jefferson got this idea from 
Rousseau's "Social Contract" published in 1762. Rous- 
seau was a poor student of history. His fervid imagina- 
tion would not brook the drudgery of historical research 
and he jumped to the conclusion, absolutely without ba- 
sis, that away back in antiquity the individuals composing 
human society voluntarily and unanimously entered into 
a contract among themselves providing for all the institu- 
tions of government and that this contract was binding 
upon their descendants forever. All were bound by it. 
Kings to govern, nobles to command and subjects to 
obey. 

In his book on Rousseau. Lord Morley, the great Eng- 
lish historian, sums up the social contract fallacy thus : 
"The obedience of the subject to the sovereign has its 
root not in contract but in force, — the force of the sover- 
eign to punish disobedience. A man does not consent to 
be put to death if he shall commit a murder, for the rea- 
son alleged by Rousseau, namely, as a means of protect- 
ing his own life against murder. There is no consent in 
the transaction. Some person or persons possessed of 
sovereign authority, promulgated a command that the 



18 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

subject should not commit murder and appointed penal- 
ties for such commission and it was not a fictitious as- 
sent to these penalties, but the fact that the sovereign was 
strong enough to enforce them, which made the com- 
mand valid." 

Some years ago typhoid fever broke out sporadically 
in many places in New York City but with no known 
source of infection. It was at length noticed that these 
outbreaks of typhoid followed the presence of a certain 
domestic servant who had been employed in every house 
where the fever afterwards appeared but who was her- 
self free from the disease. On examination it was dis- 
covered that her clothing and personal belongings were 
infected with typhoid germs and "Typhoid Mary," as 
she was thereafter called, was sent to a public institution 
for fumigation. The Declaration of Independence, in re- 
spect of spreading the germs of revolution, is the Ty- 
phoid Mary of Spanish America. 

The Declaration of Independence was intended for ex- 
ternal application only: an irritant, a mustard plnster, 
and if by misadventure it is used internally it sets the pa- 
tient ablaze. 

The trim, black, rakish craft Declaration, her hull by 
Franklin and her toji hamper by Rousseau, was gaily sent 
by Jeflferson, the jolly Roger at her peak, upon her merry 
cruise of destruction. She is still cruising and Spanish 
America is still burning. 

The true function of the Declaration of Independence 
was not as a statement of principles but as a declaration 
of war. It was a parley before the battle. In the play of 
Julius Caesar before the battle of Phillippi the opposing 
generals met and Brutus said : "Words before blows : Is 
it not so, countrymen?" Then .Augustus answers: "Not 
that we love words better, as vou do." Then follows more 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 19 

naughty talk and the battle is on. In Henry V also the 
French heralds bandy insults with the English King. In 
one of the many wars between France and England the 
English commander invited the French general, "Fire, 
Gentlemen of the French Army," to which he answered, 
"Fire, Gentlemen of the English army, we never fire first.' 
Then some one blazed away and everybody joined in. Any 
overt act is enough to start a fight. "Do you bite your 
thumb at me, sir ?" Boys put chips on their shoulders. Prize 
fighters and Mr. Roosevelt shy their casters into the ring 
but it all amounts to the same thing : "Come out, you cad, 
and fight." And that is all there is to the Declaration of 
Independence except that it gave a good Democrat, Mr. 
Jefiferson, an opportunity to make a rattling good speech. 
All attempts to realize in practice the French notions 
of liberty set forth in the Declaration of Independence 
have brought ruin. In the United States, from 1776, to 
the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the net results 
were general bankruptcy. Shay's rebellion, anarchy and 
state nullification of laws passed by Congress ; in France, 
the Reign of Terror, with the Empire as a sequence and 
in Spanish America, never-ending revolutions. The Span- 
ish American interprets the promises offered as meaning 
not only mere animal existence, but the means of living 
also. Liberty, he considers as absence of governmental 
restraint and the happiness which he deems his due is 
that it shall come to him without work. A very pretty 
philosophy, "The world owes us a living. Let's have a 
dance." Under the directory this philosophy was tried. 
In Paris there was absolute personal liberty in private life 
and individual immorality was rampant. Never was Paris 
gayer. Never in the history of modern fashions had 
women in decent social position gone so scantily and so 
voluptuously clad and the typical male Parisian was a 



20 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

simpering man of fashion whose conversation may be 
summed up in the continual repetition in a high falsetto : 
"C est incroyable." (It is incredible.) The materials of 
his costume were of gorgeous silks and satins ; the trous- 
ers tight fitting, with the waist line high up under the 
arms, a fancy waistcoat, a high collar and stock, a "swal- 
low tailed" coat with a short body, a narrow coat tail 
reaching to the ground, an immense beaver hat, the whole 
on a foundation of supporting foot straps. So completely 
had he and the costume become associated with the word 
"Incroyable" that they are known in history as the "In- 
croyables" and the French influence over American ideas 
and politics is shown in that Uncle Sam, the one figure 
typifying American nationality, as John Bull typifies 
the British, is always dressed in the costume worn by the 
French Dandy of the bloodiest epoch of modern history, 
by the Incroyable of the Reign of Terror. 

Though the Declaration of Independence is a direct 
importation from France, the Constitution is a purely 
American product. We had, of course, the English com- 
mon law and the example of the English government ; but 
there had never been a representative of the royal author- 
ity on this side of the water and when the American col- 
onies achieved their independence there were thirteen 
lines of coniniunication cut an<l the general government 
yet to be established, must be accepted by each colony to 
make it binding on all. After over eleven years of the 
Confederation and its inadequacy proved, the Constitu- 
tion was framed and adopted. Of the two documents it 
is true that the Declaration of Independence was the 
work of the Democratic party and the Constitution was 
the work of the Federalist party. Jefferson had no part 
in making the Constitution. He was not even a delegate 
to tiic convention, being in the government service abroad. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 21 

Jefferson was not in sympathy with the Constitution. He 
had no recent experience in constructive government and 
he had not advanced in the intervening years beyond the 
Declaration of Independence. He was still toying with 
liberty after it had under the Confederation degenerated 
into practical anarchy, whereas the delegates to the Con- 
stitutional convention believed that society exists for the 
preservation of property. 

This is the lesson that Spanish America has still to 
learn. Better for them had the Declaration of Independ- 
ence never been written, than that they suffer the hor- 
rors of the French revolution, even to the alleged erec- 
tion of a guillotine in a Mexican village. It is useless to 
merely copy a foreign constitution that is not the out- 
growth of the national life. When Mexico became free 
there was a representative in that country of the royal 
authority, the Viceroy, and when the separation came 
but one line of communication was severed, that between 
the Viceroy and the king. The relations existing between 
the Viceroy and the rest of Mexico were not changed, 
except in name. It is true enough that there was a re- 
christening all around and the Viceroy was called the 
President and the former provinces were now independ- 
ent and sovereign states, if you believe the letter of their 
laws, which the Good Book says killeth ; but the fact re- 
mains that the chief executive of Mexico still wields the 
power of both Viceroy and king and the various constit- 
uent divisions of the country are as completely under his 
domination as they ever were, anything to the contrary 
contained in the Mexican constitution, notwithstanding. 

The Confederation, after the Colonies became inde- 
pendent, followed the principles of the Declaration of In- 
dependence. Everybody was free. There was no national 
authority. The government was bankrupt. Congress 



22 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

passed laws which had to be approved bv the states and 
after eleven years of chaos under Jeffersonian principles, 
the Declaration was abandoned and the constitution was 
adopted. It was a compromise and there were a number 
of amendments that were afterwards adopted which add- 
ed to its efficiency. The Federal government came into 
possession of the lands of the Western Reserve, consist- 
ing of all the territory west of the present boundaries of 
the original thirteen states. This was a great source of 
wealth to the government, established its financial credit 
and with the new Federalist constitution the nation start- 
ed on its wonderful career, the basis of which was not so 
much liberty as wealth. 

After twelve years of federal administration under 
Washington and John Adams, the Democrats under Jef- 
ferson came into power. The constitution did not satisfy 
Hamilton because the Federal authority was restricted 
and it did not satisfy Jefiferson because the same author- 
ity was too great. John Adams named as chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court, John Marshall, who stands with 
Washington and Hamilton as the greatest of American 
statesmen, — Marshall's decisions uniformly favored the 
extension of the Federal authority and made the Supreme 
Court, and not Congress, the greatest power in the gov- 
ernment. Jefifcrson hated Marshall and Madison nomi- 
nated Story to the Supreme Court to counteract Mar- 
shall's influence, but Story agreed with the views of Mar- 
shall and the work of the court continued along the lines 
established. 

History truly does repeat itself. In the good old days 
of King John of England there was trouble between the 
King and the pope over the appointment of Steven Lang- 
ton as Archbishop of Canterbury and as a result the pope 
first issued an interdict and then a bull of excommunica- 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 23 

tion against John and for years England suffered almost 
the horrors of civil war. At length the pope declared the 
throne of England vacant and bestowed it on Philip of 
France who promptly prepared to cross the channel and 
take possession ; but John had had enough, so he gave up 
the fight, saluted the flag, was forgiven by the pope and 
became a favored son of the church. This goes to show 
what a vast amount of damage to an entire nation can 
be caused by the irresponsible whim of a truly good man, 
and of course the pope must have been a truly good man 
or he couldn't have been pope. 

A government is like a corporation, a bank, a railroad, 
or a person, natural or artificial. It exists by reason of its 
inherent strength, of its ability to maintain itself. The 
rule of life is "Eat or be eaten" and the new beatitude is 
"Blessed are the fittest for they shall survive." 

Liberty, freedom from restraint, is not the birthright 
of the individual; rather the reverse, subjection, slavery,. 
if you will. Helpless infancy, childhood and adolescence, 
all find us in a position of utter dependence. We must be 
supported during these years, fed, clothed, and educated. 
With manhood comes the necessity of finding visible 
means of support, failing which man becomes a vagrant, 
a criminal, degraded and outcast. If he succeeds in life 
he is the slave of his employment, of his business, of the 
conventionalities that society imposes upon him and the 
greater his success, the stronger his obligations and the 
less his true liberty. 

The real Mexican question is "WHO IS GOING TO 
PAY THE BILL?" And in this connection it may be 
further asked, "WHERE IS THE MONEY TO COME 
FROM?" After the various presidents, provisional and 
otherwise, have thoroughly exhausted that country and 
peace reigns in Mexico as it reigned in Warsaw, a gov- 



24 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

ernment may arise sufficiently stable to receive the claims 
of the foreigners who have suffered in person and estate 
during the long period of unrest. 

Ignoring for the moment the greatest of the foreign 
claimants, the Americans, there are the Spaniards, in 
whose hands are the sugar and grocery trades and whose 
shops, all over the republic, have been looted and whose 
people have been robbed, tortured, murdered and ex- 
pelled. Then come the French, who control the dry goods 
trade and who are bankers and miners ; the Germans,, 
who have the hardware trades, mines and metallurgical 
works ; the Belgians, railroad securities, and finally the 
English, as owners or mortgagees of the Mexican, Inter- 
oceanic, Tehuantepec, Southern, North-Western an4 
National railroads, oil wells and refineries at Tampico. 
and in Vera Cruz and ranches and industrial establish- 
ments all over the country. ALL these foreign claimants 
have suft'ered spoliation, robbery, insult and murder and 
all are holders of Mexican securities on which default 
has been made. 

The time will come when the claims for damage will 
be demanded. Can Mexico pay without intolerant taxa- 
tion, which impost, will engender further revolutions? 
Can Mexico pay the bill at all ? It is doubtful. 

The situation today is practically identical with that of 
1861 when the Convention was held in London and the 
claims against Mexico were urged by the governments 
of France, England and Spain for losses of their sub- 
jects. 

The result was, even as today, that Vera. Cruz was oc- 
cupied not by Americans but by the allied forces of 
France, England and S]")ain in support of the allies' de- 
mand for the payment of claims. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 25 

The United States offered to assume Mexico's indebt- 
edness and England and Spain withdrew, but the United 
States were then in the toils of civil war and the security 
did not satisfy Napoleon HI and French troops were 
landed, notwithstanding the Monroe Doctrine, and there 
followed the Franco-Mexican intervention, and the Em- 
peror, Maximillian. 

In the meantin^.e the American claimants are heard 
from and in no uncertain tones demand that the Wash- 
ington government protect them and that their interests 
do not suffer in competition vv'ith the NON AMERICAN 
foreign claimants. One of three courses must be taken 
by the United States : First, They may refuse to entertain 
any proposition whatever from the non-American foreign 
claimants, leaving them free to make their naval demon- 
stration, land their troops, occupy the custom houses and 
collect their claims. If with their refusal the United 
States declare that such landing and occupation would 
be construed as unfriendly acts, and the vmfriendly acts 
were committed there would result practically a case of 
war with the allied claimants. Second : The United States 
might approve of the joint occupation, take part in the 
naval demonstration and receive a due share of the cus- 
toms receipts. 

In both of these two cases, involving either joint or non 
American foreign intervention in Mexico, that would be 
the last of the Monroe doctrine and the partition of Latin 
America among the nations of Europe would follow as a 
matter of course and at their convenience. The Japanese 
could establish themselves at Magdalena Bay, the Ger- 
mans at some desirable Central American point and a few 
European regiments would make short work of taking 
the Panama Canal by attacking on the land side and hold- 
ing one of the Pacific locks. 



26 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

But one other course remains, the American occupation 
of Mexico and the payment of all foreign claimants with 
money advanced by the United States. No partial or tem- 
porary occupation will be enough, — we tried that sixty 
odd years ago, but all of it and permanently. But that 
would mean a war of aggression and Mr. Wilson has said 
that he is opposed to wars of aggression and when he said 
it he undoubtedly meant it. Even so, but Mr. Wilson's 
mind is easily changed and if he remains obdurate his 
successor will be chosen in 1916 and a candidate stand- 
ing on a platform of complete and permanent occupation 
of Mexico would sweep the country. 

Occupation is the only solution and it is most desired 
by the Mexicans themselves. The Mexican working ma.i, 
mechanic, miner, or peon would get a white man's wages. 
The land question would solve itself, the great holdings 
being subdivided and sold to foreign immigrants. A great 
influx of foreigners from Europe and the United States 
would change the complexion of the people and they 
would control the country's politics. About three million 
blondes would turn the trick. 

As to the principles of international law involved, they 
are neither numerous nor complicated. Wherever terri- 
tory is occupied by a weaker nation who misgoverns that 
territory or for any reason its further occupancy runs 
counter to the interests of a stronger nation who covets 
its possession, the territory must be surrendered. This is 
the history of universal spoliation during the past century 
and the victims have been Turks, Chinese, Koreans, 
Apaches, Africans, Seminoles. Poles, Arabs, Egyptians.. 
Boers, Moors, Maoris, Modocs and Mexicans. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 27 



CHAPTER H. 

"Regular troops alone are equal to the exigencies of 
modern war, as well for defense, as offense, and where 
a substitute is attempted, it must prove illusory and 
ruinous. 

"No militia will ever acquire the habits necessary to 
resist a regular force. The firmness requisite for the real 
business of fighting is only to be obtained by a constant 
course of discipline and service. 

"It is most earnestly to be desired, that the liberties of 
America may no longer be trusted, in a material degree, 
to so precarious a defense." — Washington. 

"Our mobile army is so ridiculously small in the 
world's war game, that it amounts to nothing better than 
a discard!" — Adna R. Chaffee, Lieutenant Gen. U. S. 
Army, Retired. 

"The frontiers of states are either rivers or mountains 
or deserts. O'f all these obstacles to the march of an 
army, the most difficult to overcome is the desert. Moun- 
tains come next and broad rivers occupy the third place." 
— Napoleon. 

Hindsight Better Than Foresight. 

The evolution of warfare is kaleidoscopic, so also are 
armaments and conditions. 

Preparedness in a conflict with Mexico, for instance, 
would materially differ from factors governing prepara- 
tions for war with a first class military power. 



28 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

*"Whenever a nation's attitude towards war is eva- 
sive, its conduct indecisive and its preparation an indiffer- 
ent, orderless assembling of forces, it prepares for de- 
feat. 

"There is always certainty in determining a Nation's 
probable adversaries, within such periods of time, as to 
permit preparedness, the adoption of armaments to spe- 
cific purposes and defined theatre of war." 

If the trained mind searches into the technicalities of 
the strategical and military situation of the United 
States, logical conclusions of an unbiased nature would 
undermine the existing vanity of its alleged strength and 
efficiency. To assume that the United States at this time 
could repulse a first class power invading the Pacific 
coast is fallacious and it would be well to prepare against 
such a contingency. 

To imagine the country, in a state of unpreparedness,- 
could defend itself against a prepared power is illusory. 
The money power, no matter how great, would be 
of no eft'ect, for the reason, that under present conditions 
it would take two years to obtain adequate war material 
and one year, at least, to train and discipline men. The 
raw material for the making of an army is here, but raw 
material is in most instances, less valuable than the fin- 
ished product, so the two years in question would be the 
ne plus ultra of the effort to defend an extended and 
vigorous attack with modern c<iuipment. The ease with 
which this mosaic of empires has grown opulent is the 
cause of its ascent to heights of mistaken military he- 
roics, the absurdity of which is only realized in the War 
Department, and also thoroughly recognized by the mili- 
tary attaches and heads of foreign embassies at Wash- 



*ll('nur Lea. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 29 

ington. The United States has never seen a real war on 
land with modern equipment. 

Because the United States was victor in 79 and 1812 
and the "North and the South" participated in a man to 
manslaughter from 1861 to "65, and again in 1898 were 
victors over an already half conquered and more or less 
decadent army of starving and shoeless Spanish boy sol- 
diers, four thousand miles from their base of supplies, it 
does not follow that foreign conditions of transport, arm- 
aments, military science and alliances have not completely 
altered in two decades. They certainly have since York- 
town and Gettysburg. 

It is a case of stumbling along on the doubtful military 
glories of the past, of the days of 'Tndians" and the days 
of the smooth bore, without realizing (outside mili- 
tary circles) that today battles are won by the ton weight 
of metal placed on a given spot in the shortest space of 
time. 

The history of the world shows the decline of one na- 
tion after another, when the nation became opulent and 
arrogant. The United States has become both. It does 
not realize the latter and gloats over the former. So that 
invariable law of predestined descent will move toward it 
as surely as there are, armed to the teeth, nations to the 
East, West and South. 

In 1898 war was declared by the United States against 
Spain as the outcome of the insurgent condition of Cuba. 
At this time General Weyler, the Spanish Captain- 
General of the Island, had, by severe military methods 
about accomplished its pacification. His methods v/ere 
about the same as those adopted by the English in Af- 
ghanistan, Egypt, and South Africa, or those methods 
adopted by the French and Germans in North and South- 
west Africa respectively. 



30 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

The hysterical press of the country, after the accident 
to the United States battleship "Maine," forced President 
McKinley's hand, opposed as he was personally to war, 
and the Congress, in response to the attitude of the Press 
which quickly moulded public opinion, declared war in 
April, 1898. 

The press allegations were that in the preceeding Eeb- 
ruary the Spanish blew up the "Maine" whilst at anchor 
in the harbor of Havana. It may be said that these pre- 
mature statements misled public opinion and were in a 
large measure (little was said of the commercialists at 
the doors of the Senate Chamber) the cause of the dec- 
laration of war which followed a few weeks after, even 
more so than the then existing condition of relations with 
Spain or any misplaced hysterical sympathy with the Cu- 
ban insurrectionists. America never participated in a 
more unjust or unnecessary war. 

The very cause of the inflamed condition of public 
opinion was the loss of the ship. Today the active cause of 
the Maine's loss is a matter of conjecture and conjectural 
it must remain in the minds of the most bigoted. The 
most forceful arguments only went to show that the alle- 
gations were based upon hearsay and no proof was ever 
forthcoming against the Spanish. 

In 1905 many people became participants in the pur- 
chase of the battleship Maine, then at the bottom of 
Havana harbor. The purchasers arranged with Mr. E. 
Corthell, the late state engineer of the State of New 
York, to submit plans to raise it. Mr. Corthell submitted 
plans and preparations to that end commenced. 

The purchase of the ship came about in this way : 

The Cuban government demanded of the United States 
government that it remove the ship from Havana harbor. 
as it was and had been for eight years, an obstruction 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 31 

and menace to navigation. The demand passed from the 
treasury department to the state department. Mr. John 
Hay, then Secretary of State, repHed to the Cuban gov- 
ernment in words to the effect that the United States 
government rehnquished all claims in respect to the ship 
to the Cuban government, as it was in their waters and 
harbor and if they wished it removed, there was no ob- 
jection on the part of the United States government, to 
the Cuban government taking possession of and remov- 
ing it. Whereupon the Cuban Government promptly sold 
the wreck, under this relinquishment, to Messrs. 
DeWyckoff, Petzold & Company for cash, coupled with 
a contract that the purchasers should raise it in accord- 
ance with the reply from the Department of State, and 
over the signature of the Secretary of State of the 
United States. 

When the sale became public, there was a great deal 
of speculative comment as to the cause of the ship's foun- 
dering being revealed ; this together with a wail of senti- 
mental public disapproval, resulted in Mr. Hay's letter 
of relinquishment being deemed invalid by Mr. Roose- 
velt, who stated that Congress would have to pass on 
Mr. Hay's decision. As a consequence of this decision, 
the purchasers lost the ship and never recovered their 
purchase price from the Cuban government. The "Maine" 
was subsequently floated by the United States govern- 
ment at public expense, towed into deep water outside 
Havana and sunk in the Florida strait. 

Immediately following the wreck of the "Maine" the 
disordered condition of the public mind was expressed 
in slogans relative to it, such as "Lest we forget," "Re- 
member the Maine," etc. Not one thought was given to 
the possible cause, of the disaster. 

The early reports of the divers submitted to the inves- 



32 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

tigating committee stated that they (the divers) found 
and walked upon specified plates of the ship partially 
buried in the mud, in the vicinity of and outside of the 
wreck. A careful reading of these reports indicate that 
these plates were blown out or from the ship. 

Let it be borne in mind that the "Maine" was notori- 
ous for its bad ventilation, and that it was coaled with a 
quality of soft or bituminous coal known to contain a 
very high percentage of volatile carbon. The wing bunk- 
ers were in the vicinity of the storage of ten inch shells. 
Assume that a man entered these bunkers with a naked 
light, which is now against regulations, or lighted a match, 
the possibility of an explosion of coal gas reniains, 
which might account for the first explosion, and the sec- 
ond, in the shell room, is to be accounted for by commu- 
nication from the first. Under these conditions the plates 
would be blown out. 

The public never gave Spain the benefit of this possi- 
bility, nor for the rescue of the American sailors by tlie 
crew of the Spanish man-of-war then at anchor a few 
fathoms away. The press drove the people, the Congress 
and the Senate, zmr mad. 

The Spanish people and officers of the Spanish army 
and navy, were hurt and staggered at the accusation, and 
the Cubans gloated over the disaster and the result it ef- 
fected. 

Years after the war, high Spanish officials begged the 
men of Spain to abstain from shaving for one day, and 
to contribute the amount saved by that abstention to a 
fund to be devoted to an endeavor to prove their inno- 
cence of complicity in the ship's destruction. r)Ut the 
United States government made its utilization impossi- 
ble by pandering to the sentimentality of the electorate., 
by first refusing to permit outside interests to raise the 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 33 

vessel, and secondly by sinking it in three thousand feet 
of water immediately after floating it at great cost to the 
government. The noble and "large thing," to have done, 
as Mr. Wilson puts it, would have been to invite an in-i 
ternational commission of naval officers, including Span- 
ish, to examine the ship on flotation, and to have deter- 
mined forever the cause of the disaster, at that interna- 
tional Supreme Court of unbiased naval efficiency in 
session. At least such a procedure would have been emi- 
nently satisfactory to the world and especially so to the 
honor of Spain. 



34 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 



CHAPTER HL 

The Spanish- American war, just or unjust, confirmed 
Washington's letter to Congress of September 24, 1776, 
in which he expressed his estimation of miHtia and vol- 
unteers : 

"To place any dependence upon militia is assuredly 
resting upon a broken staff. Men just dragged from the 
tender scenes of domestic life, unaccustomed to the din 
of arms, totally unacquainted with every kind of military 
skill (which is followed by want of confidence in them- 
selves when opposed by troops regularly trained, disci- 
plined, and appointed, superior in knowledge and supe- 
rior in arms), are timid and ready to fly from their own 
shadows. 

"Besides the sudden change in their manner of living, 
particularly in their lodging, brings on sickness in many, 
impatience in all, and such an unconquerable desire of 
returning to their respective homes, that it not only pro- 
duces shameful and scandalous desertions among them- 
selves, but infuses a like spirit in others. Again, men ac- 
customed to unbounded freedom and no control, cannot 
brook the restraint which is indispensibly necessary to 
the good order and government of an army, without 
which licentiousness and every kind of disorder tri- 
umphantly reign. To bring men to a proper degree of 
subordination is not the work of a day or a month, or 
even a year. . , . Certain I am that it would be 
cheaper to keep fifty thousand or one hundred thousand 
in constant pay than to depend upon half the number 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 35 

and supply the other half occasionally by militia. The 
time the latter are in pay before and after they are in 
camp, assembling- and marching, the waste of ammuni- 
tion, the consumption of stores, which, in spite of every 
resolution or requisition of Congress, they must be fur- 
nished with or sent home, added to other incidental ex- 
penses consequent upon their coming and conduct in 
camp, surpass all idea and destroy every kind of regular- 
ity and economy which you could establish among fixed 
and settled troops, and will, in my opinion, prove, if the 
scheme is adhered to, the ruin of our cause." 

The strength of the United States army during the 
war of 1898 was about 170,000. The number admitted 
to hospital during the five months, April to September, 
1898, was over 158,000, or 90 per cent, of the force. In 
April, May and June of that year, these men had passed 
severe medical examinations for fitness. Of this army 
only 38,000 participated in the war, and the actual cas- 
ualties in the field, including the Philippines, Puerto 
Rico and Cuba, amounted to 293 and 1032 from disease. 
In United States camps (Chicamaugua and Key West) 
the deaths from disease were 2649. 

The Japanese surgeon-general (reserve) to the Im- 
perial Japanese Navy, Baron Takaki, reports relative to 
the Russo-Japanese war: "Four deaths from bullets to 
one from disease." 

In the Spanish war (1898) the United States lost four 
from bullets to 56 from disease. 

Japan had 1,500,000 men in the field during their last 
war. From this host, their loss was only 4073 deaths 
from typhoid and 1804 from dysentery. 

The discipline of the American Volunteers at the time 
of the Spanish war was in keeping with the splendid 
spirit of individual American freedom and independence 



36 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

and quite consistent with the teaching of the constitution. 

One national guard state regiment, when called upon 
for active service by the Federal government, declined 
to serve. They would not and did not serve and that 
settled it. The assigned cause was that the men declined 
to serve under efficient United States (Federal) Army 
officers. They preferred their own untrained civilian of- 
ficers. 

It is true, however, that some men of this regiment 
volunteered to other state regiments that went to the 
front and who were not so particular. 

Similar incidents have happened at the time of great 
strikes, when State regiments, after having been called 
out by the State government, have thrown down their 
arms and returned peacefully to their homes, when their 
officers commanded them to fire on riotous, incendiary 
and murderous mobs composed mostly of aliens. 

Yet these men have been permitted by the individual 
State to retain their arms and their uniforms. So even 
after a hundred years, Washington's judgment is proved 
sound. 

The landing of troops in 1898 at Siboney, on the south 
coast of Cuba, was attended by confusion. Ammunition, 
commissary supplies and equipment remained on the 
beach without organized military system, only some six- 
teen miles from Santiago where the main force of the 
Spanish army was centered. During that period of or- 
ganization, the Spanish could have descended from the 
foot hills of the south mountain range they occupied im- 
mediately above and commanding the United States 
army's position, and driven the entire United States forces 
into the Carribean. The fleet lying off Siboney could not 
protect them, as their fire would have been as dangerous 
to United States troops as to the enemy during an attack. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 37 

This condition existed for many days and was keenly 
realized by many officers of the invading army. 

One very prominent volunteer cavalry officer said in 
the hearing of a sentry at the time, referring to a general 
who was abnormally stout : "If we had a little more 
brains and a little less 'guts' we should not be in this 
position." Someone said he would rather be right than be 
President. Probably the cavalry officer was not of the 
same opinion. 

However, the Spanish did not take advantage of the 
position. The naval engagement followed, resulting in 
the entire destruction of the Spanish fleet. This subse- 
quently resulted in a formal investigation of the United 
States Admiral (Schley) commanding the action. 

The charge developed in this way : The United States 
fleet had for weeks, under Admiral Samson, blockaded 
and unsuccessfully bombarded the Morro and Cabanas 
forts at Havana and the Spanish ship Reina Christina 
had escaped from that harbor with some forty million 
dollars. 

Following this the United States fleet concentrated off 
Santiago harbor, therein "bottling up" Admiral Cervera's 
fleet. 

The "American" operations were in command of Ad- 
miral Samson with Admiral Schley second in command. 
The Admiral in command (Samson) on the "New York" 
left the fleet and proceeded to a point some twelve miles 
to the east off Siboney. During his absence the Spanish 
fleet emerged from the harbor and a running fight en- 
sued in a westerly direction under Admiral Schley. Ad- 
miral Samson was necessarily left behind. Had Admiral 
Cervera's fleet steered east instead of west the flagship 
"New York" could have been the focus of Cervera's con- 
centrated fire. As the Spanish fleet came out of the har- 



38 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

bor, Schley, to avoid being rammed and in order to make 
his fire more effective, executed his famous "loop" which 
manoeuver probably saved his ship. This evolution was 
enlarged upon in a derogatory way at the Court of In- 
quiry and his tactics questioned despite his decisive vic- 
tory. 

His endeavor to immediately communicate the victory 
to his government, in the absence of Admiral Samson, 
was also a cause of great factional official dissatisfaction. 
To a great extent, politics, press criticism and prize 
money entered into the distasteful incident. The indig- 
nity to which he was subjected was unjust. 

"Put not your trust in Princes" is a saying trite with 
truth, but the ingratitude of a republic was never on any 
occasion demonstrated in a higher degree. 

The public exploitation of the incident was not con- 
ducive to good feeling, nor did it accomplish anything. 

If the Maine had anything to do with United States 
intervention in Cuba, it may also be accepted that the 
Navy precipitated reprisals in Mexico, another Latin- 
American country. It occupied Vera Cruz, admittedly 
not to protect foreign lives and interests, but to sustain 
its dignity, also to prevent the landing of French and 
German war material about to arrive there on the Ham- 
burg-American steamer "Ypiranga." 

This German ship carried guns and ammunition con- 
signed to the Mexican Government and this government 
had been recognized by European and other Courts. The 
United States Navy prohibited the landing of this cargo, 
although at this time the Administration at Washington 
was loud in its protestations that no condition of war ex- 
isted against the Mexican people. Simultaneously with 
this action, arms and war material were passing to the in- 
surrectionists from the United States, across the Texas 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 39 

frontier, by the edict of the United States Government. 
Clearly these conditions demonstrated an act of partisan- 
ship and not one of neutrahty. The position taken by the 
United States Department of State appeared inexpHcable 
in this respect as the insurrectionists and not Huerta's 
men were responsible for the murder of many United 
States citizens and foreigners. 

The landing of marines and the ensuing skirmish was 
an act of war. The referred to partisanship could easily 
have been regarded as an act of war by the de facto 
Mexican Government. The departure of the representa- 
tives of governments from the capitals of countries whose 
relations are strained is looked upon as preliminary to a 
declaration of war, and these departures took place. The 
Americans killed during the landing and occupation of 
Vera Cruz constituted a cause for war, but the Demo- 
cratic administration of the United States hesitated to 
press matters. As a matter of fact it feared the declara- 
tion would come from Mexico. Unpreparedness was the 
cause of the peace-at-any-price policy, and startling as 
that may appear, it is a better reason than the other one 
that has been attributed to the administration's attitude. 

There is not a great nation existing, worth the name of 
a nation, that has become one except through war. 

If the United States would maintain its prestige with 
those nations it must protect its citizens abroad, not only 
with verbal force but with armed force when necessary. 
The same applies to its Pacific and Atlantic expansion. 
To expect that money alone and always can achieve suc- 
cess in colonial expansion and maintain protection for its 
citizens and dignity for itself, is a fallacy. 

The efforts of the United States to placate General 
Huerta by resorting to the good offices of Argentine, 
Brazil and Chili, in an endeavor to effect an amicable 



40 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

settlement for his refusal to fire the salute demanded, 
creates the impression that the United States pandered 
to General Huerta by choosing mediators of similar blood 
and tongue. If this is correct, the foreign policy of the 
United States and its reading of Latin-American char- 
acter was defective. The "backdown" and hesitation dis- 
played by the United States after its occupancy of Vera 
Cruz was not a colossal triumph, either in diplomacy or 
intervention, and anger brooded over both lands. It did 
not, and such vacillation will not in the future, engender 
wholesome respect for American citizens from Latin 
America. The position taken by the United States was 
only in effect palliative, and varnished over a bad condi- 
tion of affairs : and then war was inconvenient. 

An element of great weakness in a military sense is 
seen in the sociological condition of the United States 
which is unique in the history of peoples. There is no 
homeogeneity of nationality and owing to this condition., 
selfish interests demand priority over permanent military 
efficiency. 

Since President Polk the national racial complexion has 
altered by the introduction of many millions of Europeans 
of varied nationalities. This has entirely submerged the 
American individuality.* 

The immigrant of 1850 readily assimilated. In 1914 
the various nationalisms are conserved, perpetuated, and 



*The total immigrants from 1824 to 1912 numbered 29,611,000 
In 1911-12 Italy sent 340,000; Austria, 3,37,000; Russian, 220,121. 
All Europe in those two years contributed 1,483,632; Asia, 40,000; 
Latin America, 200,000. The language of the country is dialectic 
and is no longer English in its pronunciation. It is known as 
the United States language and words of German, Yiddish and 
European languages are introduced into its use proportionately 
with the nationality and numbers in certain centers of alien pop- 
ulation. IMany thousands speak only their national tongue. On 
the other hand many families conserve their national language 
after three generations. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 41 

imperfect amalgamation exists. There are the Irish- 
Americans, German-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans, 
Pennsylvania-Dutch-Americans, Chinese-Americans, and 
there are 11,200,000 civilized American negroes to-day. 
There are few homogeneous Americans, except the de- 
scendents of the early Dutch and English Pilgrims and 
Puritans and the cavalier Virgina Colonists, whose Amer- 
ican identity has not become merged in the sociological 
re-constitution.* 

A vast proletariat (with a vote) is the result of the 
immigratory influx, polyglot in tongue and heterogeneous 
in nationality, always with a large proportion retaining 
the sentiments, customs and religion of their original 
nationality. This condition has not developed a high 
standard of life. 

**The military (and naval) rank and file contain a 
large number of this element, and it is "food for thought" 
how many of these would be available in war against 
their own nation, in the event of hostilities between that 
nation and the United States, or how many United States 
citizens of European or Asiatic extraction, composing the 
proletariat, would in the event of war return, despite 
their citizenship, to their native countries and regiments 
where they were conscripted. 



*The "German vote" and the "Irish vote" is a great factor in 
determining the result of presidential elections, to say little of 
the negro vote. 

**During the recent Balkan war, thousands of Albanians, Bul- 
garians, Greeks, Montenegrins and Turks left the United States 
and returned to their regimental colors. 



42 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 



CHAPTER IV. 

The more recent administrations, elected under existing 
political and social conditions, have become isolated in 
their international relationships. Transitory ignorance 
has possessed the politician-diplomat and when this has 
not been the case the "mob mind" of the electorate has 
domineered the party administration whose patronage 
dictated the appointment. 

Under these conditions of defective diplomacy the 
probabilities of war are increased. 

Extraordinary Conditions. 

I. The quadrennial family (election) quarrel and its 
sequence, viz : the struggle for office, to which all ques- 
tions of a foreign and domestic nature are subordinated. 
The stagnation of commerce and industry pending the 
outcome, for one year in advance of, and one year after, 
the "quarrel" is temporarily suspended. 

II. A navy, without a foreign-going mercantile marine 
to convoy, except through a Canadian canal and that lim- 
ited in capacity to the size of torpedo boats. A Navy 
without United States ships to coal it, and without Pa- 
cific Coast coaling stations. A navy, whose officers com- 
plain of a shortage of war material. This may be correct 
considering the large amount of condemned ammunition 
returned from the Philippines. 

III. An army of a million men (all sources) of which 
914,000 arc untrained and undisciplined, or pro rata with 
the index estimate. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 43 

IV. Inadequate war material to supply the now world- 
widely distributed 86,000 trained men composing the Fed- 
eral Army in a six months campaign. For a more extend- 
ed period of military operations it would take the country 
two years to manufacture an effective quantity in advance 
of extended military operations, and money could not 
purchase it abroad after a declaration of war. At least 
not in time to be effective. 

V. The tirades of abuse directed by the press adher- 
ents of each great political party, against the now trian- 
gular opposition. In many cases this is vindictive in alle- 
gations and the foreign powers, constituting the "outside 
world," recognize that political concretism exists, while 
the Latin-American, without exception, laughs super- 
ciliously in his cuff, and determines that his method of 
bayonet to decide the ballot is preferable in presidential 
elections and issues. 

The press has the power of moulding the vote of the 
proletariat and consequently the verdict of the issue. In 
addition thereto, it has the power to comment and lead 
opinion sub judice in cases both civil and criminal. Per- 
nicious bias is exhibited in many instances and this creates 
prejudice, resulting in civil, criminal and political injus- 
tice. Thus the press of the country is directly the political 
creative and governing power. The press is the govern- 
ment, and it is to its great influence that beneficial or 
harmful results may be traced. In other words, that which 
is entirely outside of government control, creates and 
controls. 

VI. A diplomatic corps, chiefly selected by political 
party preference. Competent? Yes! — in the lines of the 
various professions from which its members are graduat- 
ed, but rarely diplomatists. 



44 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

With this system officiahy and legally tolerated, and a 
public absorbing with avidity the extravagant statements 
made, it cannot be expected that men of code and of the 
better element will subject themselves to the yellow 
rays, which become the penalty of association with poli- 
tics. Consequently, the admitted popular opinion that 
most politicians enter politics for no other reason than 
for the betterment of their material condition of life, may 
be assumed to be nearly correct. 

Unfortunately, in "America" patriotism has become 
subordinate in ratio to profit or patronage according to 
the skin thickness of the individual politician, who can 
always create noisy appreciation from the electorate by 
the voicing of it in the oratorical waving of the flag. The 
true extent of his real patriotism is an x quantity as it 
also is with a great many of his adherents, whose pa- 
triotic instincts extend more to Hibernianism or the Teu- 
tonic beer than to the flag representing the forty-eight 
sovereignties of local divergent interests. 

vii. Misunderstandings exist in Mexico as a result of 
the Huerta bungle. All the Powers recognized Huerta's 
Government except the United States of America, 
and naturally expected that the United States would in- 
tervene to protect foreign lives and property, since the 
United States might consider it an unfriendly act should 
foreign powers individually or in concert forcibly attempt 
to do so. The United States Government did not recog- 
nize Huerta's presidency nor did it protect "American" 
lives or property during the years of anarchistic terror 
on the United States frontier and south of it. At least 
one or the other of these alternatives should have been 
early effected, especially so since the non-recognition of 
General Huerta by the United States assisted in maturing 
the existing Mexican conditions. The pacific attitude 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 45 

adopted was not in accord with the alleged military and 
naval strength of the country in the face of atrocities to 
United States men and women, and caused serious loss of 
prestige to the United States throughout Latin America. 

VIII. Japan looks askance at the attempt of the United 
States for Pacific expansion. Japan resents the Californ- 
ian attitude, and the powerlessness of the Federal Govern- 
ment to control it, develops the question of States rights. 
Japan resents Magdalena Bay and the fortification of the 
Hawaiian Islands and is preparing for the issue, which 
must come to determine the supremacy of the Pacific, in 
a manner pregnant with determination, skill of strategy 
and forethought which is as patent to-day to the students 
of the situation as it will be surprising, startling and suc- 
cessful in its execution. 

IX. England, by virtue of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, 
won for herself a diplomatic victory which may have its 
effect on internal affairs in the near future, and on ex- 
ternal affairs for a long period. But England in reality 
may not be quite so satisfied as the attitude of its foreign 
office indicates, over the ostensibly indifferent attitude of 
the United Statesmen Mexican and Panama questions. 
The same applies in this particular to Germany and 
Spain. 

X. Colombia was recently dismembered by the assist- 
ance of a previous United States administration. 

*The assistance lent by the United States to the Pan- 
ama revolutionists and the almost instant recognition of 
that republic by the United States when it seceded from 
Colombian rule, would have been considered an act of 
war under the Monroe Doctrine, had England, for in- 



*See Mr. Clark's admission of this in his speech before Con- 
gress, March 5, 1914. 



46 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

stance, employed such methods in this connection. Yet in 
the minds of most people the Monroe Doctrine has been 
construed to effect the protection of all Latin America 
from ag-gression or acquisition. The United States, by 
virtue of Mr. Olney's interpretation of it, constituted 
itself the sole dictator of Latin America, even though 
Latin America did not wish to be so dictated to or "pro- 
tected," and at heart resents the intrusion. Colombia was 
a victim of this doctrine. It was not a European power 
that established formidable fortifications on the Canal 
Zone of Panama, but the very protector who assisted in 
filching it and after a lapse of eight years proposes to 
hand to the Colombian Government $25,000,000 as an 
indemnity or bid for friendship, and the Colombian 
Government will accept them for no other reason than 
that the payment of the sum complies with terms asked 
for the canal concession. 

On May 6, 1914, Mr. Roosevelt expressed his attitude 
as follows : 

"Colombia agreed to let us build the canal on payment 
of $10,000,000. Later she tried to blackmail the United 
States when she thought France would give $25,000,000. 
Panama rose in revolt, insisting that the American agree- 
ment should stand. 

"Not one dollar can be paid Colombia with propriety 
or morally, and it would be an act of infamy to pay even 
a dollar to a nation which in crooked greed tried des- 
perate blackmail. 

"To besmirch the good name of America by such pay- 
ment would be an act unworthy any honorable man in the 
great office of President. To yield the Panama tolls rights 
would be equally dishonorable." 

If this is Ex-President Roosevelt's opinion, it would 
appear that he forgets that at the time Colombia asked 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 47 

$25,000-000 for the Panama Canal concession, the State 
of Panama with its 31,000 square miles of territory 
formed an integral part of the Republic of Colombia, and 
this being the case, Colombia had the right to ask what- 
ever it pleased for the right to construct a canal through 
its territory. Colombia's demand, under these circum- 
stances, could scarcely be termed "blackmail." 

The State of Panama was assisted to secede from Co- 
lombia and received $10,000,000 from the United States. 
Mr. Wilson now proposes to set this right with Colombia, 
and his just attitude naturally makes Mr. Roosevelt's 
ready recognition of the Republic of Panama, plus $10,- 
000,000, look a trifle awkward. 

The $25,000,000 this administration proposes to pay to 
the Republic of Colombia is not a very great sum for the 
loss of one of its nine states, more especially as Columbia 
never received a dollar from the United States for the 
canal concession although Colombia's rights were recog- 
nized by France and received a substantial sum from 
M. de Lesseps. 



48 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 



CHAPTER V. 

The parallel conditions of unrest in Panama in 1903 
and in Mexico in 1913-14 are obvious. Mr. Roosevelt 
claims the 1903 situation justified intervention because of 
President San Clamente's death in prison and Maroquin's 
usurpation of the Presidency coupled by fifty-three in- 
stances of riot and revolution, coupled with the threat- 
ened interruption of traffic across the isthmus over the 
Inter-Oceanic Railway. If intervention and subsequent oc- 
cupation was justified from these causes how much greater 
are the causes for firm intervention in Mexico where 
United States citizens have been murdered and United 
States women raped. The commercial side of the ques- 
tion as between Panama and Mexico bears little relation 
in magnitude as the Mexican situation involves hundreds 
of millions of dollars in losses to United States citizens 
and so many hundreds of millions additional to foreign 
investors. Therefore, if President Roosevelt's action was 
just in the case of Panama how much more so would 
President Wilson's firm intervention be in the case of 
Mexico where conditions are worse than any condition 
that ever existed in Colombia or even Bulgaria. 

The American public knows very little of the intensely 
bitter feeling that existed in Colombia at the time the Hay- 
Herran Treaty passed the House and Senate at Washing- 
ton. When this news arrived in Colombia acts of violence 
were committed against Americans throughout the Co- 
lombian Republic. Among the prominent persons attack- 
ed were Capt. T. T. Lovelace, the American commander 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 49 

of the Colombian Navy, and Alban G. Snyder, Consul 
General of the United States. At this time the coat-of- 
arms of the United States at the consulate at Cartagena 
was desecrated in the most revolting manner, and Capt. 
Lovelace cabled the facts to the State Department at 
Washington. Admiral Sigsbee on the Olympia was sent 
to Cartagena to demand a public apology from the gov- 
ernor, who promptly made it. 

Following this incident, Capt. Lovelace, then acting 
United States consul at Barranquilla, was sent to Bogota 
as special messenger with the Hay-Herran Treaty. 
Threats had been made on the coast and in the interior 
against any person who attempted to deliver the treaty 
to Mr. Beaupre, the American Minister at Bogota. Capt. 
Lovelace delivered the treaty and one week later Mr, 
Alban G. Snyder, the newly appointed consul general to 
Colombia, was due to arrive. The foreign ministers, real- 
izing the strained relations between the United States 
and Colombia, in order to prevent any demonstration on 
Mr. Snyder's arrival, met at the Hotel Metropolitan. 
Capt. Lovelace was requested to meet Mr. Snyder at the 
station and escort him to the hotel. Capt. Lovelace ap- 
proached Mr. Snyder on alighting from the train and re- 
quested him to take a street car instead of a carriage, in 
order to foil any attempt upon his life ; but unfortunately, 
Mr. Snyder's military bearing and American appearance 
subjected him to scrutiny, and while in the car a vicious 
attack was made on him. An Antiochian colonel raised a 
heavy cane and struck at Mr. Snyder's head when Love- 
lace knocked the colonel off the car. A riot then ensued 
and the fight continued to the hotel, the mob breakin;jj 
through the heavy doors. The foreign ministers tried in 
vain to stop the riot and it was not until soldiers arrived 
that order was restored. 



50 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

After this the Hay-Herran treaty was considered an 1 
rejected by the Colombian Senate and the $10,000,000 
offered by the United States to Colombia for the Canal 
concession was simultaneously refused. Panama seceded 
and received the money plus $250,000 a year. 

The bitter feeling then existing in Colombia toward 
Americans is shown by the following incidents : The gov- 
ernor of Magdalena, General Juan B. Tova, asked the 
protection of the United States Consulate. The Colom- 
bian mob, at Barranquilla, sought to kill him for his fail- 
ure to subdue the Panama revolutionists. With tears he 
told Capt. Lovelace, then United States vice-consul there, 
that "Panama had passed." Despite danger to his Hfe the 
old general declined to enter the consulate until the United 
States flag on the office wall was placed in the safe out 
of his sight. The vice-consul in consideration of the 
Colombian's feelings placed it there and the report of 
the incident is of record in the State Department at 
Washington. 

It is not generally known how the Panamanian gunboat 
"Oriente," having a speed of 23.4 knots an hour, was 
purchased from the Nixons about the time of Panama's 
secession, or of the events preceding its purchase. The 
interesting telegram in this connection received at the 
Imperial Hotel, New York, in part said : " . . . procure 
'one' big and fast enough to lick the gunboat (Colombian) 
'Cartagena' . . . ," would make history. 

The same man, Capt. T. T. Lovelace, who delivered 
the Hay-Herran treaty to United States Minister Beaupre 
at Bogota and who was United States vice consul at 
Baranquilla, was appointed the first captain of the "Ori- 
ente." At the termination of his command his sealed 
orders, "not to be opened unless you lose your ship," 
were collected from him at Colon by an American civilian 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 51 

who said he was from Washington, and who produced 
the duphcate of the series and number inscribed on the 
"sealed orders." Of course they would not have been 
surrendered if sufficient proof of authority had not been 
forthcoming. 

Some time before this a torpedo boat destroyer, with 
four funnels, sans flag, sans number, sans nationality, 
was lying not far from Colon, Someone has said the 
sealed orders referred to the idle destroyer. "Anyway," as 
politicians have it, it is believed that the destroyer was 
subsequently broken up at the Norfolk Navy Yard. Dur- 
ing Panama's rebellion against Colombia, the United 
States gunboat "Helena" was conveniently near Aspin- 
wall. During all this intrigue and since the United States 
apparently overlooked a most important matter in an- 
other part of Colombia. 

Until the State of Panama was severed from the Co- 
lombian union, Colombia possessed two Pacific coast 
ports, Panama and Buenaventura. The latter as a Pacific 
exit for the commerce of the interior is more important 
and Colombia still retains it. As a coaling station it is 
most important and is only some three hundred miles 
southeast of Panama. 

Lord Murray left London about the middle of 1913 for 
Bogota. Lord Cowdray, his associate, was interested in 
Colombian oil and other projects in that Republic. Wide 
concessions were granted to Lords Murray and Cowdray 
by the Colombian government, and rumors were current 
that these were not to the liking of the Washington ad- 
ministration. Reports had it that these concessions were 
subsequently nullified, much to the satisfaction of the 
United States, and Lord Murray returned to London. 
Simultaneously with his withdrawal from Colombia, Mr. 
C. N. Breitung, a New York financier, left for Colombia 



52 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

following in Lord Murray's footsteps. As Mr. Breitung 
and Lord Cowdray have business relations, many persons 
have said that he "picked up the trail" where Lord Mur- 
ray temporarily abandoned it, thus forming a pivot of 
interests masking the British position. 

Was oil the only motive of Lord Murray's journey 
from London to Bogota, or was the prime motive to 
arrange and procure the contracts for the acquisition of 
the Ferro-Carril-del-Cauca and the Port of Buenaven- 
tura? 

The Cauca railroad has its terminal at Buenaventura 
and is built across the western Cordillera to the Cauca 
Valley, that Eden in the Andes. The extension of this 
line north from Cali through Buga to connect with Sir 
Rivers Wilson's Colombian Atlantic railroad system will 
complete the all-British transcontinental Colombian route, 
and will be of tremendous commercial and strategic im- 
portance ; which taken together with Lord Cowdray's 
Inter-Oceanic Tehauntepec railroad effectually flanks the 
Panama Canal in Tehauntepec to the Northwest and the 
Colombian Trans-continental to the southeast. 

As a coaling station for Great Britain, Buenaventura 
is most convenient and renders British vessels entirely in- 
dependent of the Panama coal storage at the islands of 
Nace and Flamingo in Panama Bay. Especially is it a 
convenient port since the vast coal deposits on the line 
of railroad in the vicinity of Cali are less than eighty 
miles from Buenaventura and are the only known coal de- 
posits between tlie Canadian frontier and Valparaiso on 
the Pacific Coast. 

Is it possible that President Wilson had all this in mind 
when he said in his speech to Congress asking for the 
repeal of the Panama Canal Act of 1912: 'T shall not 
know how to deal with other matters of even greater 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 53 

delicacy and nearer consequence if you do not grant it to 
me in an ungrudging measure." 

If the United States prohibits Japan's private corpora- 
tions from colonizing Magdalena Bay in Mexico, perhaps 
for similar reasons it will employ the Monroe Doctrine 
to prohibit Great Britain's private corporations from ob- 
taining the most valuable harbor and coaling station on 
the Pacific Coast, only one day's steam from Panama. 

If Lord Cowdray "lets go" the Colombian concessions 
granted to Lord Murray, it would be interesting to know 
as a matter of curiosity, how much of the $25,000,000 
that the United States is about to pay to Colombia, will 
be turned over to Lord Cowdray for his surrender. 

An annual report of Rear Admiral Bradford, chief of 
the Equipment Bureau of the United States Navy, says 
that he spent in one year $2,273,111 for coal. Thousands 
of tons of Welsh and Australian coal are annually import- 
ed to San Francisco for the United States Navy. The 
figures available show 105,066 tons of foreign coal in the 
year of his report and 9000 tons of domestic coal from 
the Atlantic seaboard at a cost of $9.25 per ton in each 
instance. Apart from this the Pacific Coast ports use 
nearly 250,000 tons of foreign coal per annum which sells 
for $15 U. S. C. per ton alongside. Coal can be placed 
alongside at Buenaventura for less than $2.50 per ton, 
and the British control it and the port. 

In a speech just before the last Balkan war, the present 
British King said to his people: 'Wake tip England." 
Those words embodied the most cogent command he has 
ever uttered as a constitutional monarch. Those three 
words will be handed down in the history of his country. 
He felt their necessitious import. He expressed all he 
felt in them. If some great man could say, "United 
States, wake up," or "Stop drifting," and have those 



54 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

words received by the people in the same spirit as were 
those of the British King, the United States might be in 
time to prepare for that which is inevitably descending 
upon it with "glacier like certainty of advance." 

The plane of State, military, and social conditions, in 
the United States, is the antithesis of a national meti- 
crisis. The population has become metamorphic, and be- 
ing so, lacks concentration of political purpose, which is 
due to immigration and a great alien population. An arti- 
ficiality in the pose of patriotism is present, noisy in its 
demonstration and not entirely sincere in all its protesta- 
tions, lacking that sense of pride in ancestral lore which 
is inherent in nations of unmixed strain. 

The nation is becoming chrysophilitic in character anc*! 
its military efficiency and strength is a long way in the 
rear of world powers. This is not realized and conse- 
quently not admitted by the people, or cared about by their 
representatives in Congress. All rely on the mobilization 
of that force so strongly condemned by General Washing- 
ton in his day, and classed as a "discard" by General 
Chaffee in this day. 

This condition is due to the altered sociological situa- 
tion in its relation to the necessities of obtaining and 
maintaining an effective army. 

If one world power to-day allied itself to the cause of 
General Huerta, or raised the (luestion of Pacific expan- 
sion by the United States, and America was left with- 
out outside allies to fight it out, the position would result 
in one of humiliation, due to unpreparedness in war. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 55 



CHAPTER VI. 
Monroe Doctrine and Expansion. 

In 1862 Mr. Seward declared : "The United States have 
neither the right nor the disposition to intervene by force 
on either side in the lamentable war which is going on be- 
tween France and Mexico." 

In 1823 Monroe sent his message to Congress in which 
he said : 

"We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable 
relations existing between the United States and those 
Powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt 
on their part to extend their system to any portion of this 
hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With 
the existing colonies or dependencies of any European 
Power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. 
But with the governments who have declared their inde- 
pendence and maintain it, and whose independence we 
have, on great consideration and on just principles, ac- 
knowledged, we could not view any interposition for the 
purpose of oppressing them or controlling in any other 
manner their destiny by any European Power in any 
other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly 
disposition toward the United States." 

During 90 years the interpretation of those sentences 
has become elastic to the detriment of all foreign powers 
and beneficial to the United States. "To extend their sys- 
tem" may be construed as relative to the Holy Alliance 
formed by the Continental Courts after the overthrow of 
Napoleon for the repression of revolutionary movements 
in their kingdoms. 



56 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

Canning asserted the principle of non-interference in 
the internal affairs of foreign states in 1822, a principle 
he enforced in 1826 by sending troops to Portugal to 
defend it against Spain, while recognizing the revolted 
colonies of South America and Mexico. 

Through Canning Great Britain broke from that "Holy 
pact," and was probably a party and privy to Monroe's 
message. The doctrine has grown disproportionate to its 
original intent. It has been used selfishly, stretched and 
distorted in order to serve convenient purposes at dififer- 
ent moments. The elasticity of its limitations was de- 
termined and clearly demonstrated in the Venezuela 
boundary question. 

The Secretary of State (Mr. Olney) undertook to in- 
terpret the Monroe Doctrine. His construction was : 

"The United States is practially sovereign on this con- 
tinent and its fiat law." 

Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, replied to this in- 
terpretation with a touch of amusing sarcasm : 

"The Monroe Doctrine must always be mentioned with 
respect on account of the distinguished statesman to 
whom it is due." 

The possibility of George Canning being in his mind 
at the time was lost sight of in the United States. 

The distortion of its literal purport has covered the 
despotic acquisition, by the United States, of California, 
a naval station in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Panama, and it 
has encroached on the rights of Mexico in deciding how 
Mexico, not Europe, shall not colonize its own Lower 
California. 

In his message, Monroe declared against "Oppression." 
The dictatorial attitude of the United States, in the latter 
instance, was an act of oppression and contrary to that 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 57 

doctrine advocated by Monroe. So also was the instigated 
seizure of Panama. 

Mr. Cleveland's foreign policy in relation to Venezuela 
was as undiplomatic as it was unnecessary. His message 
to Great Britain was couched in language which might 
have readily culminated in unpleasant relations, had that 
country not received it temperately, diplomatically and in 
a spirit of conciliatory toleration. The message was like 
an unexpected blow in the face from a friend, to the 
British Government and public. 

The touchy moods of the "American" State Departments 
were again exemplified in the case of the demand by the 
United States Government for the recall of Lord Sack- 
ville West during the same administration. He had been 
duped into a written expression of opinion as to the rela- 
tive merits of the Presidential candidates, and suggested 
how the writer should vote. The opinion was written 
privately to a former British subject who at the time was 
a United States citizen. There was a possibility that the 
correspondence was preconceived by persons who desired 
the result it subsequently achieved. 

Moods and personal whims are not within the province 
of officials of state, especially of those of a republican 
government. 

Expansion. 

The United States has taken upon itself to preserve 
Latin America for itself from Europe and Asia, and Latin 
America is silent. It is suspicious and with good reason, 
for in 17 years, Panama, Guantanamo and Puerto Rico, 
in the Atlantic, have been annexed, and but for the Piatt 
Amendment the United States might have been in pos- 
session of all of Cuba. 



58 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

Expansion in the Pacific — Hawaiian Islands : 

Area Population 

(sq. miles) 

Hawaii 4,210 55,382 

Maui 728 28,623 

Kahoolawe 69 27 

Lanai 139 131 

Molokai 161 1,791 

Oahu 600 81,993 

Kauai 547 23,744 

Niihau 97 208 



6,651 191,909 

Guam, the largest of the Ladrone Islands, area 207 
square miles, population 12,000, naval base Samoa, con- 
sists of the island of Tutuila and Anua, Ofu, Olosenga, 
Tau, and Rose Islands, with a total area of about 95 
square miles and a population estimated at 6,000 in 1910, 
The flag of the United States was hoisted on Wake Is- 
land in 1899 and other islands in the Pacific have been 
annexed from time to time, including Johnston, Callego, 
Starbuck, Penrhyn, Palmyra, Washington, Fanning, and 
Christmas, Howland and Baker, Gardner, Medway, Mar- 
cus, and Morell, and the Philippine Islands — 

Island : Area Population 

(sq. miles) 1913 

Bohol 1,441 243,148 

Cebri 1,762 592,247 

Leyte 2,722 357,641 

Luzon 40,969 3,798,507 

Mesbate 1 ,236 

Mindanao 36,292 499,634 

Mindoro 3,851 

Ncgros 4,881 460,776 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 59 

Palawau 4,027 

Panay 4,61 1 743,646 

Samar 5,03 1 222,690 

Other Islands (3,130) 14,572 

Total 121,395 7,635,426 

So it would appear that the United States feels itself 
at liberty to expand anywhere while prohibiting like ex- 
pansion to foreign powers, European or Asiatic. 

The current interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine by 
the United States is not quite clear and may be open to 
grave question by the powers at some future date. They 
are beginning to look upon the exercise of the Monroe 
Doctrine by the United States as one of singular oppor- 
tunism. 



60 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 



CHAPTER Vn. 

The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty between the United States 
and Great Britain, of April \9th, 1850, provided that no 
fortifications shall be estabhshed in Central America. 
This is contained in the following provision which is one 
of the articles of the treaty : 

"The Governments of the United States and Great 
Britain hereby declare that neither the one nor the other 
will ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive con- 
trol over the said ship canal ; agreeing that neither will 
ever erect or maintain any fortifications commanding the 
same or in the vicinity thereof, or occupy, or fortify, or 
colonize, or assume, or exercise any dominion over Nica- 
ragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of 
Central America." 

This treaty was abrogated in 1900 and a draft of the 
first Hay-Pauncefote treaty substituted. Article VH. con- 
tained : 

"No fortifications shall be erected commanding the 
canal or the waters adjacent. The United States, how- 
ever, shall be at liberty to maintain such military police 
along the canal as may be necessary to protect it against 
lawlessness and disorder." 

This treaty was not ratified by the United States Sen- 
ate, but the second or following treaty was executed. 

As will be seen in the treaty the question of fortifica- 
tions remains especially ambiguous and open to argu- 
ment. It only allows the Ignited States to protect the 
canal against lawlessness. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 61 

HAY-PAUNCEFOTE TREATY 
Between the United StxVtes and Great Britain, 
to facilitate the construction of a ship canal. 
Signed at Washington, November 18, 1901. Ratified by 
Great Britain, January 20, 1902. Ratification advised 
by the Senate, December 16, 1901. Ratifications ex- 
changed at Washington, February 21, 1902. Ratified 
by the President, December 26, 1901. 

Proclaimed, February 22, 1902, 
"By THE President of the United States of America. 
"A PROCLAMATION. 
"Wliereas, a Convention between the United States of 
America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland, to facilitate the construction of a ship canal to 
connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, by zvhatcver 
route may be considered expedient, and to that end to 
remove any objection which may arise out of the Conven- 
tion of the 19th April, 1850, commonly called the Clayton- 
Bulwer treaty, to the construction of such canal under the 
auspices of the Government of the United States, without 
wipairing the 'general principle' of neutralisation estab- 
lished in Article VIII. of that Convention, was concluded 
and signed by their respective plenipotentiaries at the city 
of Washington on the 18th day of November, 1901, the 
original of that Convention is word for word as follows : 

"Treaty. 
"The United States of America and His Majesty 
Edward the Seventh, of the United Kingdom of 
Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British Domin- 
ions beyond the Seas, King, and Emperor of India, 
being desirous to facilitate the construction of a ship 
canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, by 
whatever route may be considered expedient, and to that 



62 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

end to remove any objection which may arise out of the 
Convention of the 19th April, 1850, commonly called the 
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, to the construction of such canal 
under the auspices of the Government of the United 
States, zdthout impairing the 'general principle' of neu- 
tralisation established in Article VIII. of that Conven- 
tion, have for that purpose appointed as their Plenipoten- 
tiaries : 

"The President of the United States, John Hay, 
Secretary of State of the United States of America ; 

"And His Majesty Edward the Seventh, of the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the 
British Dominions beyond the Seas, King and Emperor 
of India, the Right Honourable Lord Pauncefote, C.C.B., 
C.C.M.C., His Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and 
Plenipotentiary to the United States; 

"Who, having communicated to each other their full 
powers which were found to be in due and proper form, 
have agreed upon the following Articles : 

"Article I. The High Contracting Parties agree that 
the present Treaty shall supersede the afore-mentioned 
Convention of the 19th April, 1850. 

"Article II. It is agreed that the canal may be con- 
structed under the auspices of the Government of the 
United States, either directly at its own cost, or by gift or 
loa^i of money to individuals or Corporations, or through 
subscription to or purchase of stock or shares, and that 
subject to the provisions of the present Treaty, the said 
Government shall have and enjoy all the rights incident 
to such construction, as well as the exclusive right of 
providing for the regulation and management of the 
canal. 

"Article III. The Ignited States adopts, as the basis 
of the neutralization of such ship canal, tlie following 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 63 

Rules, suhstantiaUy as embodied in the Convention of 
Constantinople, signed the 2Sth October, 1888, for the 
free navig-ation of the Suez Canal, that is to say : 

1. The canal shall be free and open to the vessels of 
commerce and of zmr of all nations observing these rules, 
on terms of entire equality, so that there shall be no dis- 
crimination against any such nation, or its citizens or sub- 
jects, in respect of the conditions or charges of traiiic, or 
otherzuise. Such conditions and charges of traffic shall be 
just and equitable. 

*"2. The canal shall never be blockaded, nor shall any 
right of war be exercised nor any act of hostility be com- 
mitted within it. The United States, however, shall be at 
liberty to maintain such military police along the canal as 
may be necessary to protect it against lazvlessness and dis- 
order. 

"3. Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not revictual 
nor take any stores in the canal except so far as may be 
strictly necessary, and the transit of such vessels through 
the canal shall be effected with the least possible delay in 
accordance with the Regulations in force, and with only 
such intermission as may result from the necessities of 
the service. 

"Prizes shall be in all respects subject to the same Rules 
as vessels of war of the belligerents. 

"4. No belligerent shall embark or disembark troops, 
munitions of war, or warlike material, on the canal, ex- 
cept in case of accidental hindrance of the transit, and in 
such case the transit shall be resumed with all possible 
dispatch. 



*Since this treaty was ratified the Canal entrances have been 
fortified and the heaviest artillery armaments in the world em- 
placed by the United States. 



64 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

"5. The provisions of this Article shall apply to waters 
adjacent to the canal, within 3 marine miles of either end. 
Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not remain in such 
waters longer than twenty-four hours at any one time, 
except in case of distress, and in such case, shall depart 
as soon as possible ; but a vessel of war of one belligerent 
shall not depart within twenty-four hours from the de- 
parture of a vessel of war of the other belligerent. 

"6. The plant, establishment, buildings, and all works 
necessary to the construction, maintenance and operation 
of the canal shall be deemed to be part thereof, for the 
purpose of this Treaty, and in time of war, as in time of 
peace, shall enjoy complete immunity from attack or in- 
jury by belligerents, and from acts calculated to impair 
their usefulness as part of the canal. 

Article IV. It is agreed that no change of territorial 
sovereignty or of the international relations of the country 
or countries transversed by the before-mentioned canal 
shall afifect the general principle of neutralization or the 
obligation of the High Contracting Parties under the 
present Treaty. 

"Article V. The present Treaty shall be ratified by 
the President of the United States, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Soiate thereof, and by His 
Britannic Majesty; and the ratifications shall be ex- 
changed at Washington or at London at the earliest pos- 
sible time within six months from the date hereof. 

"In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have 
signed this Treaty and thereunto affixed their seals. 

"Done in duplicate at Washington, the 18th day of No- 
vember, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hun- 
dred and one. 

"John H.vy. (Seal) 
"Pauncefote. (Seal) 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 65 

"And whereas the said Convention has been duly rati- 
fied on both parts, and the ratification of the two Govern- 
ments were exchanged in the city of Washington on the 
twenty-first day of February, one thousand nine hundred 
and two : 

"Now, therefore, be it known that I, Theodore Roose- 
velt, President of the United States of America, 
have caused the said Convention to be made pubhc, to 
the end that the same and every article and clause thereof 
may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the 
United States and the citizens thereof. 

"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. \ 

"Done in the city of Washington, this twenty-second 
day of February, in the year of Our Lord one thousand 
nine hundred and two, and of the independence of the 
United States the one hundred and twenty-sixth. 

(Seal) "Theodore Roosevelt. 

"By the President: 

"John Hay, 

"Secretary of State." 

The United States did not acquire, by the Isthmian 
Canal Convention of November 18, 1903, any title to 
territory in the Republic of Panama, but merely a per- 
petual right of occupation, use, and control of and over 
a zone of land ten miles in width. For this privilege it 
paid to the Republic of Panama the sum of $10,000,000, 
and undertook to pay the sum of $250,000 annually so 
long as such occupancy continued, such payments begin- 
ning on February 26, 1913. 



66 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 



CHAPTER Vni. 

Acquisition of the Panama Canal Zone in 
1904 FROM Panama. 

Article 2 of the treaty between the United States and 
the Republic of Panama, ratified by the United States 
Senate, February 23. 1904. Treaty in efifect February 26, 
1904, provided for the cession in perpetuity by Panama 
of a strip of territory adjacent to the canal, as follows: 

"The Republic of Panama grants to the United States 
in perpetuity, the use, occupation and control of the zone 
of land and land under water for the construction, main- 
tenance, operation, sanitation and protection of said canal 
of the width of ten miles, extending to the distance of 
five miles on eaoli side of the center line of the route of 
the canal to be constructed. The said zone beginning in 
the Caribbean Sea ; three marine miles from mean low 
water mark and extending to and across the Isthmus of 
Panama into the Pacific Ocean to a distance of three 
marine miles from mean low water mark, with the pro- 
viso that the cities of Panama and Colon and the harbors 
adjacent to said cities, zvhich are included within the 
boundaries of said cone above described shall not be 
inchtded within this grant. The Republic of Panama 
further grants to the United States in perpetuity the use, 
occupation and control of any other lands and waters 
outside of the zone above described, which may be neces- 
sary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, 
operation, sanitation and protection of the said canal or 
of any auxiliary canals or other work necessary and con- 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 67 

venient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sani- 
tation and protection of said enterprise. The Republic of 
Panama further grants to the United States in perpetuity 
the use, occupation and control of all islands within the 
limits of the zone above described, and in addition thereto, 
the group of small islands in the bay of Panama named 
Perico, Nace, Culebra and Flamingo." 

The Panama Canal Act of 1912. 
Provision for the Permanent Government of the Canal 

Zone and Exemption of Coastwise Vessels from Tolls. 

Deemed to be in Contravention with the Treaty of 1901 < 

The Sixty-second Congress, Second Session, passed 
"An act to provide for the opening, maintenance, pro- 
tection and operation of the Panama Canal and for the 
sanitation and government of the Canal Zone," which was 
approved August 24, 1912, and is as follows : 

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represent- 
atives of the United States of America in Congress as- 
sembled. That the zone of land and land under water of 
the width of ten miles extending to the distance of five 
miles on each side of the centre line of the route of the 
canal now being constructed thereon, which zone begins 
in the Caribbean Sea three marine miles from mean low- 
water mark and extends to and across the Isthmus of 
Panama into the Pacific Ocean to the distance of three 
marine miles from mean low-water mark, excluding there- 
from, the cities of Panama and Colon and their adjacent 
harbors located within said zone, as excepted in the treaty 
with the Republic of Panama dated November 18, 1903, 
but including all islands within said described zone, and 
in addition thereto the group of islands in the Bay of 
Panama named Perico, Nace, Culebra and Flamingo, and 
any lands and waters outside of said limits above de- 



68 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

scribed which are necessary or convenient or from time 
to time may become necessary or convenient for the con- 
struction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, or protec- 
tion of the said canal or of any auxiHary canals, lakes, 
or other works necessary or convenient for the construc- 
tion, maintenance, operation, sanitation, or protection of 
said canal, the use, occupancy, or control whereof were 
granted to the United States by the treaty between the 
United States and the Republic of Panama, the ratifica- 
tions of which were exchanged February 26, 1904, shall 
be known and designated as the Canal Zone, and the 
canal now being constructed thereon shall hereafter be 
known and designated as the Panama Canal. The Presi- 
dent is authorized, by treaty with the Republic of Panama, 
to acquire any additional land or land under water not 
already granted, or which was excepted from the grant, 
that he may deem necessary for the operation, mainten- 
ance, sanitation, or protection of the Panama Canal, and 
to exchange any land or land under water not deemed 
necessary for such purposes for other land or land under 
water which may be deemed necessary for such purposes, 
which additional land or land under water so acquired 
shall become part of the Canal Zone. 

"Sec. 2. That all laws, orders, regulations, and ordin- 
ances adopted and promulgated in the Canal Zone by 
order of the President for the government and sanitation 
of the Canal Zone and the construction of the Panama 
Canal are hereby ratified as valid and binding until Con- 
gress shall otherwise provide. The existing courts estab- 
lished in the Canal Zone by Executive order are recog- 
nized and confirmed to continue in operation until tlio 
courts provided for in this act shall ])e established. 

"Sec. 3. Tliat the President is authorized to declare 
by Executive order that all land and land under water 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 69 

within the Hmits of the Canal Zone is necessary for the 
construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, or pro- 
tection of the Panama Canal, and to extinguish by agree- 
ment when advisable, all claims and titles of adverse 
claimants and occupants. Upon failure to secure by agree- 
ment title to any such parcel of land or land under water 
the adverse claim or occupancy shall be disposed of and 
title thereto secured in the United States and compensa- 
tion therefor fixed and paid in the manner provided in the 
aforesaid treaty with the Republic of Panama, or such 
modification of such treaty as may hereafter be made. 

A Permanent Government for the Canal Zone. 

"Sec. 4. That when in the judgment of the President 
the construction of the Panama Canal shall be sufficiently 
advanced toward completion to render the further ser- 
vices of Isthmian Canal Commission unnecessary the 
President is authorized by Executive order to discontinue 
the Isthmian Canal Commission, which, together with the 
present organization, shall then cease to exist ; and the 
President is authorized thereafter to complete, govern, 
and operate the Panama Canal and govern the Canal 
Zone or cause them to be completed, governed and oper- 
ated, through a Governor of the Panama Canal and such 
other persons as he may deem competent to discharge 
the various duties connected with the completion, care, 
maintenance, sanitation, operation, government, and pro- 
tection of the canal and Canal Zone. If any of the per- 
sons appointed or employed as aforesaid shall be persons 
in the military or naval service of the United States, the 
amount of the official salary paid to any such person shall 
be deducted from the amount of salary or compensation 
provided by or which shall be fixed under the terms of 
this act. The Governor of the Panama Canal shall be 



70 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

appointed by the President, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, commissioned for a term of four 
years, and until his successor shall be appointed and 
qualified. He shall receive a salary of ten thousand dol- 
lars a year. All other persons necessary for the comple- 
tion, care, management, maintenance, sanitation, govern- 
ment, operation, and protection of the Panama Canal and 
Canal Zone shall be appointed by the President, or by his 
authority, removable at his pleasure, and the compensa- 
tion of such persons shall be fixed by the President, or 
by his authority, until such time as Congress may by law 
regulate the same, but the salaries or compensation fixed 
hereunder by the President shall in no instance exceed 
by more than twenty-five per centum the salary or com- 
pensation paid for the same or similar services to per- 
sons employed by the Government in Continental United 
States. That upon the completion of the Panama Canal 
the President shall cause the same to be officially and 
formally opened for use and operation. 

"Before the completion of the canal, the Commission 
of Arts may make report to the President of their recom- 
mendation regarding the artistic character of the struc- 
ture of the canal, such report to be transmitted to Con- 
gress. 

No Tolls on American Coastwise Vessels. 

"Sec. 5. That the President is hereby authorized to 
prescribe and from time to time to change the tolls that 
shall be levied by the Government of the United States 
for the use of the Panama Canal : Provided, That no tolls, 
when prescribed as above, shall be changed, unless six 
months' notice thereof shall have been given by the Presi- 
dent by proclamation. No tolls shall be levied upon ves- 
sels engaged in the eoastwise trade of the United States. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 71 

That section forty-one hundred and thirty-two of the Re- 
vised Statutes is hereby amended to read as follows : 

" 'Sec. 4132. Vessels built within the United States and 
belonging wholly to citizens thereof, and vessels which 
may be captured in war by citizens of the United States 
and lawfully condemned as prize, or which may be ad- 
judged to be forfeited for a breach of the laws of the 
United States ; and seagoing vessels, whether steam or 
sail, which have been certified by the Steamboat Inspec- 
tion Service as safe to carry dry and perishable cargo, 
not more than five years old at the time they apply for 
registry, wherever built, which are to engage only in trade 
with foreign countries or with the Philippine Islands and 
the islands of Guam and Tutuila, being wholly owned by 
citizens of the United States or corporations organized 
and chartered under the laws of the United States or of 
any State thereof, the president and managing directors 
of which shall be citizens of the United States, or cor- 
porations organized and chartered under the laws of the 
United States or of any State thereof, the president and 
managing directors of which shall be citizens of the Unit- 
ed States, and no others, may be registered as directed in 
this title. Foreign-built vessels registered pursuant to this 
act shall not engage in the coastwise trade : Provided, 
That a foreign-built yacht, pleasure boat, or vessel not 
used or intended to be used for trade admitted to Amer- 
ican registry pursuant to this section shall not be exempt 
from the collection of ad valorem duty provided in sec- 
tion thirty-seven of the act approved August 5, 1909, en- 
titled "An act to provide revenue, equalize duties, and en- 
courage the industries of the United States, and for other 
purposes :" That all materials of foreign production which 
may be necessary for the construction or repair of vessels 
built in the United States and all such materials neces- 



72 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

sary for the building or repair of their machinery and all 
articles necessary for their outfit and equipment may be 
imported into the United States free of duty under such 
regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may pre- 
scribe : Provided further, That such vessels so admitted 
under the provisions of this section may contract with the 
Postmaster-General under the act of March 3, 1891 en- 
titled "An act to provide for ocean mail service between 
the United States and foreign ports, and to promote com- 
merce," so long as such vessels shall in all respects com- 
ply with the provisions and requirements of said act.' 

'Tolls may be based upon gross or net registered ton- 
nage, displacement tonnage, or otherwise, and may be 
based on one form of tonnage for warships and another 
for ships of commerce. The rate of tolls may be lower 
upon vessels in ballast than upon vessels carrying pas- 
sengers or cargo. When based upon net registered ton- 
nage for ships of commerce the tolls shall not exceed one 
dollar and twenty-five cents per net registered ton, nor 
be less, other than for vessels of the United States and 
Its citizens, than the estimated proportionate cost of the 
actual maintenance and operation of the canal, subject 
however, to the provisions of article nineteen of the con- 
vention between the United States and the Republic of 
Panama, entered into November 18, 1903. If the tolls 
shall not be based upon net registered tonnage, they shall 
not exceed the equivalent of one dollar and twenty-five 
cents per net registered ton as nearly as the same may be 
determined, nor he less than the equivalent of seventy- 
five cents per net registered ton. The toll for each pas- 
senger shall not be more than one dollar and fifty cents 
The President is authorized to make and from time to 
time amend regulations governing the oi)eration of the 
lanama Canal, and the passage and control of vessels 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 73 

through the same or any part thereof, inckiding the locks 
and approaches thereto, and all rules and regulations 
affecting pilots and pilotage in the canal or the approaches 
thereto through the adjacent waters. 

"Such regulations shall provide for prompt adjustment 
by agreement and immediate payment of claims for dam- 
ages which may arise from injury to vessels, cargo, or 
passengers from the passing of vessels through the locks 
under the control of those operating them under such 
rules and regulations. In case of disagreement suit may 
be brought in the district court of the Canal Zone against 
the Governor of the Panama Canal. The hearing and 
disposition of such cases shall be expedited and the judg- 
ment shall be immediately paid out of any moneys appro- 
priated or allotted for canal operation." 

The remainder of the section provides for the method 
of adjusting all claims arising out of injuries to em- 
ployes. 

Section 6 provides for radio-communication at suitable 
places along the Panama Canal and adjacent coasts and 
for the establishment and maintenance of dry docks, re- 
pair shops, warehouses, etc., for the use of the vessels 
using the canal. 



74 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 



CHAPTER IX. 

Duties of the Governor of the Panama Canal. 

"Sec. 7. That the Governor of the Panama Canal shall, 
in connection with the operation of such canal, have 
official control and jurisdiction over the Canal Zone and 
shall perform all duties in connection with the civil gov- 
ernment of the Canal Zone, which is to be held, treated 
and governed as an adjunct of such Panama Canal. Un- 
less in this act otherwise provided, all existing laws of 
the Canal Zone referring to the civil Governor or the 
civil administration of the Canal Zone shall be applicable 
to the Governor of the Panama Canal, who shall perform 
all such executive and administrative duties required by 
existing law. The President is authorized to determine 
or cause to be determined what towns shall exist in the 
Canal Zone and subdivide and from time to time resub- 
divide said Canal Zone into subdivisions, to be designated 
by name or number, so that there shall be situated one 
town in each subdivision, and the boundaries of each sub- 
division shall be clearly defined. In each town there shall 
be a magistrate's court with exclusive original jurisdic- 
tion coextensive with the subdivision in which it is situ- 
ated of all civil cases in which the principal sum claimed 
does not exceed three hundred dollars, and all criminal 
cases wherein the punishment that may be imposed does 
not exceed a fine of one hundred dollars, or imprisonment 
not exceeding thirty days, or both, and all violations of 
police regulations and ordinances and all actions involv- 
ing possession or title to personal property or the forcible 
entry and detainer or real estate. Such magistrate shall 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 75 

also hold preliminary investigations in charges of felony 
and offences under section ten of this act, and commit or 
bail in bailable cases to the district court. A sufficient 
number of magistrates and constables, who must be citi- 
zens of the United States, to conduct the business of such 
courts, shall be appointed by the Governor of the Panama 
Canal for terms of four years and until their successors 
are appointed and qualified, and the compensation of such 
persons shall be fixed by the President, or by his author- 
ity, until such time as Congress may by law regulate the 
same. The rules governing said courts and prescribing 
the duties of said magistrates and constables, oaths and 
bonds, the times and places of holding such courts, the 
disposition of fines, costs, forfeitures, enforcements of 
judgments, providing for appeals therefrom to the district 
court, and the disposition, treatment and pardon of con- 
victs shall be established by order of the President. The 
Governor of the Panama Canal shall appoint all notaries 
public, prescribe their powers and duties, their ofiicial 
seal, and the fees to be charged and collected by them." 
Sections 8, 9 and 10 provide for a judiciary for the 
Canal Zone, and prescribe its duties, and Section 11 pro- 
vides for jurisdiction by the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission in matters of competition by common carriers 
through the canals involving disputes as to the facts. The 
remaining sections of the act are as follows: 

Extradition. 

"Sec. 12. That all laws and treaties relating to the 
extradition of persons accused of crime in force in the 
United States, to the extent that they may not be in con- 
flict with or superseded by any special treaty entered into 
between the United States and in the Republic of Panama 
with respect to the Canal Zone, and all laws relating to 



76 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

the rendition of fugitives from justice as between the sev- 
eral States and Territories of the United States, shall 
extend to and be considered in force in the Canal Zone, 
and for such purposes and such purposes only the Canal 
Zone shall be considered and treated as an organized 
Territory of the United States. 

The Canal in Time of War. 
"Sec. 13. That in time of war in which the United 
States shall be engaged, or when, in the opinion of the 
President, war is imminent, such officer of the army as 
the President may designate shall, upon the order of the 
President, assume and have exclusive authority and juris- 
diction over the operation of the Panama Canal and all 
of its adjuncts, appendants, and appurtenances, including 
the entire control and government of the Canal Zone, and 
during a continuance of such condition the Governor of 
the Panama Canal shall, in all respects and particulars as 
to the operation of such Panama Canal, and all duties, 
matters, and transactions affecting the Canal Zone, be 
subject to the order and direction of such officer of the 
army. 

"Sec. 14. That this act shall be known as. and referred 
to as, the Panama Canal act, and the right to alter, amend, 
or repeal any or all of its provisions or to extend, modify 
or annul any rule or regulation made under its authority 
is expressly reserved. 

Fortification of the Panama Canal. 
Chapter 285 of the Statutes of the Sixty-hrst Congress. 
third session, "An act making appropriations for sundry 
civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year end- 
ing June 30, 1912, and for other purposes," approved 
March 4, 1011, contained the following appropriations for 
the fortification of the Isthmian Canal: 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 77 

"For construction of sea coast batteries on the Canal 
Zone, two million dollars; 

"For the purchase, manufacture and test of sea coast 
cannon for coast defence, including their carriages, sights, 
implements, equipments and machinery necessary for the 
manufacture at the arsenals (to cost ultimately not to 
exceed one million, nine hundred and six thousand dol- 
lars), one million dollars, the same to be immediately 
available and to continue available until expended." 

Public Law No. 302, "An act making appropriations 
for Sundry Civil Expenses of the Government for the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, and for other purposes, 
approved August 24, 1912, contained the following ap- 
propriations for the fortifications of the Isthmian Canal : 
"For the following for fortifications and armament 
thereof for the Isthmian Canal, to be immediately avail- 
able and to continue available until expended, namely : 

"Causeway. For the construction of a causeway or 
bride-e for use in connection with fortifications, $150,000. 
"Seacoast Batteries. For construction of seacoast 
batteries on the Canal Zone, $1,000,000 and any balance 
of the appropriation for the construction of seacoast bat- 
teries on the Canal Zone made by the act of March 4, 
1911. 

"Submarine Mine Structures. For the construction 
of mining casements, cable galleries, torpedo storehouses, 
cable tanks and other structures necessary for the opera- 
tion, preservation and care of submarine mines and theii 
accessories on the Canal Zone, $220,000. 

"Field Fortifications and Camps. For the construc- 
tion of field fortifications and the preparation of camp 
sites on the Canal Zone, $200,000. 

"Armament of Fortifications. For the purchase, 
manufacture and test of seacoast cannon for coast de- 



78 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

fence, including their carriages, sights, implements, equip- 
ments and the machinery necessary for the manufacture 
at the arsenals (to cost ultimately not to exceed $2,324,- 
000), $500,000. 

"For the purchase, manufacture and test of ammuni- 
tion for seacoast cannon, including the necessary experi- 
ments in connection therewith, and the machinery neces- 
sary for its manufacture at the arsenals, $575,000. 

"Submarine Mines. For the purchase of submarine 
mines and the necessary appliances to operate them for 
closing the channels leading to the Isthmian Canal, $111,- 
750. 

"In all, specifically for fortifications and armaments 
thereof for the Isthmian Canal, $2,806,950. 

"For the fortifications and armament of the Panama 
Canal, to be immediately available and to continue avail- 
able until expended, namely : 

"Surveys. For detailed surveys of the areas of the 
Canal Zone required for military purposes, including the 
cost of marking permanently the boundaries of such 
areas, $12,000. 

"Purchase of Land. For the purchase of land on the 
Canal Zone, required for military purposes, $50,000. 

"Seacoast Batteries. For the construction of sea- 
coast batteries on the Canal Zone, $2,365,000. 

"Electric Light and Power Plants. For the pur- 
chase and installation of electric light and power plants 
for the seacoast fortifications on the Canal Zone, $173,- 
000. 

"Searchlights. For the purchase and installation of 
searchlights for the seacoast fortifications on the Canal 
Zone, $285,000. 

"Sanitary Clearing. For sanitary clearing, filling 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 79 

and drainage in vicinity of camps, posts and defensive 
works on the Canal Zone, as follows : 

"Margarita Island: For filling swamp in rear defen- 
sive works, $180,000; for clearing and improving perma- 
nent post site and drill ground at Miraflores, $30,000. 

"Armament of Fortifications. For the purchase, 
manufacture, and test of seacoast cannon for coast de- 
fence, including their carriages, sights, implements, equip- 
ments and the machinery necessary for their manufacture 
at the arsenals (to cost ultimately not to exceed $2,506,- 
000), $1,000,000; Provided, that the Chief of Ordinance 
is authorized to transfer to and use in the fortifications 
of the Panama Canal one sixteen inch gun and carriage, 
procured, or to be procured, out of appropriations here- 
tofore made under armament of fortifications for Conti- 
nental United States : 

"For the purchase, manufacture and test of ammuni- 
tion for seacoast cannon, including the necessary experi- 
ments in connection therewith, and the machinery neces- 
sary for its manufacture at the arsenals, $575,000. 

"Fire Control. For the construction of fire control 
stations and the purchase and installation of accessories 
therefor, $200,000. 

"In all specifically for fortifications and armaments 
thereof for the Panama Canal, $4,870,000. 

"The Secretary of War is authorized and directed to 
cause to be prepared and submit to Congress on or be- 
fore December 15, 1913, complete plans for, and drafted 
estimates of, barracks and quarters for the mobile army 
and sea coast artillery on the Canal Zone." 



80 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 



CHAPTER X. 

Obsessed by the internal dollar politics of political pa- 
tronage in the gift of members of the United States Sen- 
ate and even of the President himself; ambassadorial 
appointments to foreign nations, down to postmasterships 
to favorites, irrespective of qualification ; the same system 
extending to each Governor of each State, State Senators 
and members of the State Legislatures, which include 
appointments to the judiciary, the whole country is at 
loggerheads every four years in attempts to obtain lucra- 
tive office, resulting in political upheaval and unrest. This 
covers the entire political area with intrusions of greed 
and discontent, culminating in scandalous accusations 
in the public press against the existing political power 
for the following four years, when the tirade of party 
abuse and the juggle of new appointments to Fed- 
eral and State offices is re-enacted. New office holders 
equally as inefficient as their predecessors are then ap- 
pointed by political preference and the internal struggle 
is again renewed, until the better element of the popula- 
tion eschew politics almost entirely and are at one in the 
thought, with Europeans, that constitutional monarchy 
of a democratic form is a more economical and preferable 
form of government. 

In 1857 Macauley predicted the condition now exist- 
ing. He said in respect to the United States : 

"On one side is a statesman preaching patience, respect 
for vested rights, strict observance of pul)lic faith. On 
the other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of 
capitalists and usurers, and asking why anybody should 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 81 

be permitted to drink champagne, and to ride in a car- 
riage, while thousands of honest folks are in want of 
necessaries. . . . When society has entered on this 
downward progress, either civilization or liberty must 
perish. Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the 
reins of the government with a strong hand or your 
republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by 
barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman empire 
was in the fifth ; with this difference that the Huns and 
Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from 
without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been 
engendered within your own country by your own insti- 
tutions." 

As a consequence of this internal chaos, few poli- 
ticians are interested in foreign affairs, at least very few 
specialize or are educated in a school of diplomacy, or 
are familiar with the complexities attending the negotia- 
tion of foreign relations, or the importance of them. Upon 
appointment, the new incumbent of departmental office 
takes up the burden of unfinished treaties and negotia- 
tions left by his predecessor; often he is an opponent of 
the political party retired from power and so without 
specific training or sound knowledge of the subject, he 
and the committees (also politically appointed) wallow 
along in a quagmire of international errors, trusting to 
their natural acumen to adjust an issue.* 

In the United States the voice of the press is not always 
the voice of the people, but the acts of the people are 
generally dictated by the voice of the press, and it is 
feared and pandered to by Federal and State office hold- 



*As in the case of the Titanic inquiry for instance, the chair- 
man's (Mr. Smith) knowledge of ships and navigation was so 
limited as to elicit international criticism. 



82 AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 

ers alike, because it influences their destruction or crea- 
tion individually and collectively. 

How is it to be expected, under this system of political 
patronage, to maintain an efficient Department of State ? 
One able to cope with the trained diplomats of Europe or 
Japan? United States ambassadors and ministers are 
appointed from the untrained masses ; editors, attorneys, 
merchants, politicians and relatives of politicians ; men 
whose families aspire to social heights out of the United 
States, whose desire it is to wander in the purlieus of 
royalty for a brief period. Diplomats ! To the manner 
born and trained by early environments? No! At the 
termination of the short rule of the political party in 
power, they are recalled and substituted and the chrysa- 
lid diplomats having once fluttered, pass out of both 
official and public life. Eoreign courts endure this and 
are in most cases relatively inappreciative. These embryo 
diplomatists, with few exceptions, comprise the repre- 
sentatives of the United States in Europe, Asia and 
South America, and mistakes follow. In other civilized 
countries young men are selected from great universities 
for diplomatic service, and carefully trained for the posi- 
tion ; made proficient in modern languages ; compelled 
to graduate from a College of Diplomacy to a third or 
fourth secretaryship of an inferior nation, and by effi- 
ciency, inviolate integrity and marked ability, after serv- 
ing years in a like position in many minor embassies and 
legations, they ascend to first secretaryships of the embas- 
sies of more prominent countries before becoming min- 
isters of legations to even third class powers. How can 
untrained nun under the United States system, compete 
with such experience? They cannot and their efforts in 
many instances are smiled at indulgently. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 83 



CHAPTER XL 

As a result of appointing untrained ambassadors and 
ministers, President Wilson delivered himself of the fol- 
lowing remarkable speech before Congress at Washington 
on March 5, 1914, relative to the Panama Canal Treaty 
with England. Briefly the issue was: Should coastwise 
American ships have an advantage over British ships in 
canal tolls in the face of a treaty existing between the 
two countries to the effect that all vessels of all nations 
should pass through the Canal on terms of equality. The 
Panama Canal Act, passed by the United States Govern- 
ment in August, 1912, provided for an advantage, viz: 
exemption from the payment of tolls by American coast- 
wise vessels in contravention of the then existing treaty 
made between Great Britain and the United States of 
America by Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British ambassador 
and John Hay, Secretary of State for the United States, 
in November, 1901. 

President Wilson asked for the repeal of the Panama 
Canal An of 1912 and upheld the treaty. The bill for 
the repeal is known as the Sims Bill. The text of the 
President's speech was as follows : 

"I have come to you on an errand which can be briefly 
performed, but I beg you will not measure its importance 
by the number of sentences in which I state it. No com- 
munication that I have addressed to Congress has carried 
with it a more grave or far reaching implication to the 
interests of the country, and I come now to speak upon a 
matter with regard to which I am charged, to a peculiar 
degree, by the Constitution itself, with personal responsi- 
bility. 



84 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

"I come to ask the repeal of that provision of the 
Panama Canal Act of August 24, 1912, which exempts 
vessels engaged in coastwise trade of America from the 
payment of tolls, and to urge upon you the justice and 
wisdom and large policy of such a repeal with the utmost 
earnestness of which I am capable. In my ozvn judgment, 
iiiaturely formed after careful consideration, I believe 
that exemption constitutes a mistaken economic policy 
from every point of vieii^, and is, moreover, in plain con- 
travention of the treaty ivith Great Britain concerning the 
canal, concluded November 18. 1901. 

"But I have not come before you to urge my personal 
views. I come to state to you a fact and a situation. 
Whatever may be our own dififerences of opinion con- 
cerning this much debated measure, its meaning is not 
debated outside of the United States. Everyzchere else 
the language of the treaty is given but one interpretation, 
and that interpretation precludes the exemption I am 
asking you to repeal. IVe consented to the treaty; its 
language zve accepted, if xcv did not originate it, and we 
are too big, too powerful and too self-respecting a nation 
to interpret with too strained or refined reading, the 
words of our promises, just because we have power 
enough to give us leave to read them as we please. The 
large thing to do is the only thing zee can afford to do, 
and that is a voluntary withdrawal from a position every- 
where questioned and misunderstood. We ought to re- 
verse our action without raising the question of whether 
we are right or wrong, and so once more deserve our 
reputation for sincere generosity and redemption of every 
obligation without (|uil)blo or hesitation. 

*T ask this of you /// support of the foreign policy of 
my administration. I shall not knoz<.' hozc to deal zvith 
other matters of even greater delicacy a)id nearer conse- 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 85 

qiience, if you do not grant if to nic in an ungrudging 
measure." 

This last sentence was generally considered significant. 
It was taken as a veiled reference to the President's 
acknowledged desire to accede to England's wishes rela- 
tive to canal tolls as a means of insuring British support 
for the administration's course in other delicate involve- 
ments. Among the diplomats was Secretary of State 
Bryan, the German Ambassador Count Von Bernstorff, 
the French Ambassador (Mr. Jusserand). The British 
Ambassador, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, was absent. 

The Senators arrived late. It zvas 12 :30 before they 
were announced. Meanwhile President Wilson had been 
zvuiting in the speaker's room. As he finished, just at 
12 :39, there was an outburst of applause. Speaker Clark, 
the third officer of the United States Government, re- 
ferred the message to the Commerce Committee. 

Congressman Underwood, the Democratic floor leader, 
declined to comment on the address. He said he thought 
a party caucus concerning the President's request was 
unlikely, and plainly indicated that he disagreed. 

Congressman Adamson of Georgia, chosen as the 
President's spokesman in the House debate on the canal 
tolls, was emphatic in his approval of the administration's 
attitude. 'T was pleased with the message," he said, "be- 
cause it is the 'square' thing at home and abroad. The 
charge that we are surrendering to England is a lie. We 
will now repeal that piece of rascality.''^' 

On March the 31st following, the Congress voted on 
the repeal of the Canal Act of 1912. The third officer of 
the United States Government, the Speaker of the House, 
Mr. Champ Clark, also a Democrat and of the same 



*Enacted during Mr. Taft's administration. 



86 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

political party as the President, spoke as follows prior to 
the division : 

"Mr. Speaker, there is no personal issue between the 
President of the United States and myself. I have at no 
time uttered one word of criticism of the President. At 
no time, so far as I believe, has the President said one 
word of criticism of me. In the nature of things, a man 
who is worthy to hold a high public post in the service 
of the country must believe that other public servants 
are actuated by the same high, courageous and patriotic 
motives by which he believes himself to be moved. 

"I have never entertained the opinion that President 
Wilson is actuated by other than the highest patriotic 
motives. I do not believe that President Wilson has ever 
entertained any other opinion as to the conduct of those 
of us wdio find it necessary to differ from him on this 
question. 

"President Wilson does not desire a breach in the Dem- 
ocratic party. I do not desire a breach in the Democratic 
party, and there is no breach in the Democratic party 

"Some papers assert that I am opposing this surrender 
to Great Britain as an opening gun in my campaign for 
President in 1916. It may surprise these obsequious cour- 
tiers to know that I have never hinted to any human 
being that I would be a Presidential candidate in 1916, 
and that I am not a candidate. 

*"// zvill surprise these limber-backed incense sunngers 
still more to know what I had uniformly told those who 
have suggested my candidacy in l')16, and it is this: 'If 
President Wilson makes a success of his administration 
he will be renominated and elected in 1^16; but if he 



*Mr. Clark's slangy sentences are unique, but his parliamentary 
colloquialisms are doubtlessly appreciated and understood in 
some parts of the United States. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 87 

makes a failure, which God forbid, the nomination will 
not be worth having.' 

"One more word on this head : I do not believe that 
the fact that I led on twenty-nine ballots at Baltimore, 
receiving a clear majority on nine, and that I got a ma- 
jority of more than 300,000 over the President in primary 
elections where he and I competed, precludes me from 
discharging my duty of exercising my rights as a Repre- 
sentative in Congress and as Speaker of the House to 
stand up for America against Great Britain. 

"The fact that I am making this faght for our platform 
may end my public career. -There are many things worse 
than being defeated for Congress or for the Presidency, 
and one of them is to repudiate the platform on which 
you are elected. 

"I have no word of criticism for my Democratic friends 
who are going to vote for the repeal. We have worked 
together too long; we have mourned together in defeat 
for sixteen years, but never were disheartened ; we have 
rejoiced together in our victories during the last four 
years, and I hope we will have cause to rejoice in many 

more. 

"I never spent as much time thinking about what my 
duty was as upon this. I looked at it from every con- 
ceivable angle to see if there was any justification for not 
keeping our platform pledge, but to save my life I could 
conjure no excuse for bolting the platform. 

"On the 19th of August, 1893, I made my first speech 
in the House. On that occasion, as on this, a platform 
figured in the proceedings. Among other things, I said: 

" 'What is a platform anyway ? Is it an honest declara- 



*Evidently Mr. Clark is of the opinion that a "platform" is 
infallible, but right or wrong it must be supported. 



88 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

tion of principles which the framers honestly intend to 
enact into laws if they attain to power, or it is a dishonest 
device whereby to entrap the unwary voter? Is it a candid 
statement of the faith that is in us, or is it a bait to catch 
"gudgeons?" (votes?) 

" Ts it the plighted word of men of honor to accom- 
plish certain things, or is it only "good enough Morgan" 
till after election?' 

"I have stood by that declaration ever since, now almost 
twenty years. I stand by it now. 

"To whom does the Panama Canal htXonganyzvay? To 
the United States of America. We built it at the enor- 
mous cost of $400,000,000. We built it on American soil. 
We have fortified it; we will control it. In order to get 
a chance to build it we created a republic. 

"For whose benefit did we build it? Primarily for our 
own; secondarily for the world's benefit* 

"Why did we build it ? In order to secure cheap water 
freight rates. 

"Who fought the building of the canal for fifteen long, 
wearisome years? Tiie transcontinental railroads. 

"Who would be the chief beneficiaries of this repeal 
bill ? The same transcontinental railroads — the Canadian 
Pacific and Tehuantepec National railway heading the 
list. To do a thing to enable them to hold up their old 
rates is altruistic generosity run mad, and an outrage on 
the American people. I refuse to endorse any such pro- 
gramme. 

*"The declaration in favor of free tolls for our coast- 



*Mr. Clark did not state that Mr. Roosevelt appreciated as its 
greatest importance the interoceanic facilities alTorded the United 
States licet. 

♦Witlidut considerati(iii of the treaty with Groat Britain. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 89 

wise trade was writ large in the Baltimore platform. It 
is in these words : 

" 'We favor the exemption from toll of American ships 
engaged in coastwise trade passing through the canal. 

" 'We also favor legislation forbidding the use of the 
Panama Canal by ships owned or controlled by railroad 
carriers engaged in transportation competitive with the 
canal.' 

"We went to the people on that platform containing the 
free tolls plank, headed by President Wilson himself, 
who all endorsed it. Standing upon it we appealed to the 
voters of the land for their support, and they, responding 
to our Macedonian cry for help, enabled us to sweep the 
' id from sea to sea by amazing majorities in the electoral 
jllege. And not as is proposed that we reward their 
faith in us by repudiating one of the planks of that plat- 
form. I refuse absolutely to be a party to any such per- 
formance. 

"We most earnestly desire peace with all nations; we 
will buy peace from none. In the memorable words of 
the immortal Pickney, 'Millions for defense, but not one 
cent for tribute.' 

"We are asked to grant to Great Britain, whom we 
defied and defeated in our infancy and whom we defied 
again and defeated in our early youth in the war of 1812 
— properly called 'our second war of independence'— 
concessions grounded in injustice and humiliating in 
character — claims for which concessions had been aban- 
doned by Great Britain, until Senator Elihu Root made 
a speech upholding the contentions of that foreign power. 
*"We zvant war zvith no nation, but rather than surren- 



*In view of the Democratic administration's tardiness in pro- 
tecting foreign interests and lives in Mexico, this may be taken 
cum grano salts. 



90 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

dcr our complete sovereignty over every square foot of 
our globe-encircling domain 'H'e zinll cheerfully and cour- 
ageously face the world in amis. 

"The amazing request of the President for the repeal, 
Hke the peace of God, passeth all understanding. If he 
has any reasons which are not utterly untenable and which 
impelled him to make the request, he has not vouchsafed 
them to us as a body, or, so far as I am informed, to any 
member of the House. 

"In his message one reason assigned by the President 
was in these words : 

" 'That exemption constitutes a mistaken economic 
policy from every point of view.' 

"If it is a 'mistaken economic policy' now, was it not 
'a mistaken economic policy' during the campaign of 1912 
when we all, under the head of the President himself, 
endorsed it as part of the Democratic creed on which we 
appealed for votes? If so, why did the President endorse 
it then? 

"But it is not 'a mistaken economic policy.' If so, is 
not our policy from the very beginning, of shutting all 
foreign ships out of our coastwise trade, a mistaken econ- 
omic policy?' Do not our rules of charging foreign ves- 
sels for wharfage, dockage, pilotage, and so forth, while 
charging your own vessels no fees, or smaller fees, also 
constitute 'a mistaken economic policy' if the President 
is correct? 

"In short, if he is correct, is there not anything we can 
do to give our own people an economic advantage what- 
soever in the race for commercial supremacy 'a mistaken 
economic policy?' 

"A second reason for the rej:)cal assigned by President 
Wilson is that the exemption of our coastwise trade from 
payment of tolls is 'in plain contravention of the treaty 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 91 

with Great Britain concerning the canal, concluded on 
November 18, 1901.' 

"Of course, the President believes that or he would 
not have said it, but he was mistaken. If I believed that, 
I would vote for him, but I am as tender and jealous of 
my country's honor as he is, or as any other living 
man is.* 

Opinion of the Supreme Court. 

"In the case of Olsen vs. Smith, reported in the 195th 
U. S. volume 332, at page 334, a case involving the very 
point involved in the exemption section of the Panama 
Canal tolls law. Chief Justice White, then Mr. Justice 
White, delivered the opinion of the court in these words : 

" 'Nor is there merit in the contention that, as the 
vessel in question was a British vessel coming from a for- 
eign port, the state laws concerning pilotage are in con- 
flict with a treaty between Great Britain and the United 
States providing that "no higher or other duties or 
charges shall be imposed in any port of the United States 
on British vessels, than those payable in the same ports 
by vessels of the United States." Neither the exemption 
of coastwise steam vessels from pilotage resulting from 
the law of the United States, nor any lawful exemption 
of coastwise vessels created by the State law, concerns 
vessels in the foreign trade, and therefore any such ex- 
emptions do not operate to produce a discrimination 
against British vessels engaged in foreign trade, and in 
favor of vessels of the United States in such trade. 



*Article III., Section i, Hay-Pauncefote treaty, says : "The 
canal shall be free and open to the vessels of commerce and of 
war of all nations ... on terms of entire equality, so that there 
shall be no discrimination against any nation or its citizens or 
its subjects in respect to the conditions or charges of traffic or 
otherwise." 



92 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

" Tn substance, the proposition but asserts that by the 
law of the United States steam vessels in the coastwise 
trade have been exempt from pilotage regulations, there- 
fore tliere is no power to subject vessels in foreign trade 
to pilotage regulations, even although such regulations 
apply without discrimination to all vessels engaged in 
such foreign trade, whether domestic or foreign.' 

"The court held that there could be no discrimination 
where there was no competition, and that as by the law 
of the United States only American vessels can engage 
in coastwise trade, it was no violation of the treaty if the 
regulations applied to all vessels in tlie foreign trade. 
The reasoning of the decision applies equally well to the 
present situation. 

'Tn his very able minority report the member from 
California (J. R. Knowland) thus elucidates the de- 
cision : 

" 'The remarkable similarity of the facts and conditions 
in the Olsen against Smith case and that under consid- 
eration is apparent. In that case, it was urged that a law 
of the United States granting an exemption in favor of 
vessels engaged in the coastwise trade, was in violation 
of a treaty. The exemption in that case was from pilotage 
charges ; in the present case it is from toll charges. Cer- 
tainly it cannot be contended that there is aiiy ciistiiiciion 
between the cases in that regard.' 

"In that case the language of the treaty bound this 
country not to impose any higher ihuy or charges on Brit- 
ish vessels than on vessels of the Ignited States in the 
same ])()rts. But nndrr llic local law llriiisli vessels were 
required to pay pilotage charges while American vessels 
were completely exempt from such charges. 'A plain 
violation of the treaty,' the majority would say. but in 
cfft'ct tiic Supreme Court said: 'No; for what we do. or 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 93 

omit to do, with regard to our coastwise trade is of no 
concern to any nation, for they cannot complain with re- 
gard to a traffic in which they have no interest. No regu- 
lation, exemption or privilege which we see fit to grant 
to our coastwise trade is a just subject of complaint, for 
it does not concern vessels engaged in the foreign trade.' 

"Certainly the President has never read the Olsen 
against Smith decision by our court of last resort or he 
never would have concluded that the exemption of tolls 
on our coastwise trade was in plain contravention of our 
treaty with Great Britain. 

"If we have entertained an engagement which forbids 
us to manage our own afifairs, then we must abide by it, 
however foolish or unnecessary that engagement may 
have been. But have we ? Here opinions, honest opinions^ 
differ, not only American but British opinions. 

"His Majesty's government is quite certain now that 
exemption of tolls on our coastwise traffic violates the 
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, but it was very far from certain 
when its accredited representatives wrote to our Secre- 
tary of State so late as July, 1912, that 'if the trade 
should be so regulated as to make it certain that only bona 
fide coastwise traffic which is reserved for United Str.tcs 
vessels would be benefitted by this exemption ; it may be 
that no objection could be taken.' 

"So far as our own best judges are concerned, it is 
quite safe to say that with the exceptiou of the learned 
senior Senator from New York (Mr. Elihu Root) and 
our former highly respected Ambassador, Mr. Choate, 
the weight of recognized legal opinion of the highest 
merit, from Mr. Olney, Mr. Taft, Mr. Knox and the 
present Chief Justice of the United States is a precisely 
similar case, is practically unanimous to the effect that 
neither legally in a broad sense nor technically in a nar- 



94 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

row application, does this treaty forbid us to regulate 
the transportation of our own goods in our own ships 
through our own canal between our own ports, 

"The President differs from the judgment of these and 
many other men of like understanding. He is convinced 
that the statute, as it now stands, does contravene our sol- 
emn obligation, and should therefore be repealed. So be- 
lieving, he does the only thing that an honorable and 
conscientious head of the nation could do ; he asks to re- 
consider your action in view of his conviction that we 
have violated a pledge. 

"Whatever may be the difference of opinion respecting 
the merits of the case, I do President Wilson honor for 
his act. If I were in his place and believed as he believes, 
I should do as he has done. 

"In addition to the Supreme Court decision as pointed 
out by Mr. Mann, the same view is held by two Presi- 
dents, by two Secretaries of State and by the House it- 
self on three separate occasions. 

"The plain, unvarnished truth of history is that from 
the beginning to the present hour, what we do about our 
domestic trade, which includes the coastwise trade, we 
have continued solely as our business and that foreign 
nations have absolutely nothing to do unth it. 

"The repeal means the practical abandonment of the 
Monroe Doctrine'^, which zoe forced into the code of the 
international law, and which the American people will 
maintain at all hazards. This is the only proposition 
they ever agreed upon, and the reason they agreed upon 
it was that it was a genuine 'American' pronouncement, 
one to warm the cockles of the heart of every true 'Amer- 
ican' betwixt two seas. It was the doctrine of sclf-de- 



"Not recognized by Great Britain. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 95 

fense. Touch that doctrine and the bristles of the Ameri- 
can people rise instanter. Those who assert that the Mon- 
roe Doctrine is dead, reckon without their host. 

"Now may the God of our fathers who nerved 3,000,- 
000 backwoods Americans to fling their gage of battle 
into the face of the mightiest monarch in the world, who 
guided the hand of Jefferson in writing the charter of 
liberty, who sustained Washington and his ragged and 
starving army amid the awful horrors of Valley Forge, 
and who gave them complete victory on the blood stained 
heights of Yorktown, may He lead members to vote so as 
to prevent this stupendous folly — this unspeakable hu- 
miliation of the American republic." 

Three ballots were necessary to determine the issue. The 
first ballot came on Republican opposition party leader 
Mann's motion to have the engrossed bill presented to 
the House and read. This motion was for a delay, that 
members might have a chance to consider the arguments 
made for free tolls. The motion was beaten by a vote of 
247 to 160. The eighty-seven majority against Mann's 
motion, considered dilatory by the Wilson leaders, show- 
ed the strength of the Wilson hand. 

Again Mann tried to stem the tide with a motion to re- 
commit the bill for amendment in committee. This was 
suggested by Speaker Clark, who urged that the whole 
matter of tolls be left open to the Government for two 
years. 

On the roll call demanded by Mr. Mann, the Wilson 
forces showed a strength of 232 to 176, a majority of 56, 
that would brook no delay in the final settlement by the 
House of the question. 

The result on division was in favor of repeal : 247 ayes 
and 161 nays, or a majority of 86 for President Wilson. 



96 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

Contributing to this majority were twenty-seven Re- 
publicans whom RepubHcan Leader Mann could not hold 
to his great plea for. free tolls without regard to party. 
Fifty-two of the Democratic (Government) members 
came to the support of Speaker Clark, Floor Leader Un- 
derwood and the other great Democrats who fought to 
save free tolls. 

The announcement of the vote at 7 :16 o'clock was re- 
ceived in comparative silence. 

One able writer, Mr. Alfred Henry Lewis, writing for 
the Hearst papers (Independent Democratic) which ex- 
tend across the American continent, said the following 
day : 

"Bunker Hill was declared a failure, Yorktown a mis- 
take and this country relegated to its original position as 
a province of the British crown by a House majority of 
86. England should now consider and doubtless will, 
what reward is due from her to the timid knee-bending 
Wilson. 

"In the debate which preceded this national disgrace, 
the Champ Clark speech was the master effort. Whether 
or not it convinced Congress it will at least convince the 
country. Clear, strong, honest, full of courage, it was in 
mighty contrast to the canal message of Mr. Wilson, in 
which nothing stood out except the U'ilsoji timidity. That 
was the worst thing about Mr. Wilson's canal utterance. 
Its one appeal was to cowardice, its one argument fear. 

"We must give England her way, and though the way 
be wrong, we nuist pay for the canal those $400,000,000; 
we must pay those annual $30,000,000 required to main- 
tain it. And then perforce wo nuist tamely operate it in 
accordance witli England's will and under England's 
dominating thumb. Wliy " Because — according t(^ the 
hair-hung ghost-shaken Mr. Wilson — we are afraid of 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 97 

England, afraid of Japan, afraid of Mexico, afraid of 
everybody. 

"After so abject an utterance from its White House 
it needed such a speech as Speaker Clark's to restore the 
country's self respect." 

Many thousands read and believe this kind of comment 
who never knew there was a treaty in existence or were 
ignorant of its substance. 

The issue was not without its comedy. The constitu- 
ents of an extreme western state sent the following tele- 
gram to one of its Congressional representatives who 
voted against the President. 

"Have read your brilliant speech declaring your own 
and America's willingness to light the world. In such a 
gigantic struggle your patriotic services will be needed, 
and we proffer our efforts to obtain for you a conspicu- 
ous position on the front of the firing line." 

The chaotic condition of the existing Congress over 
the Panama question — the Democratic party divided 
against itself, the Republican party (the opposition) di- 
vided against itself; the third officer of the United States 
set against the President in policy on this question in an 
endeavor to wreck a treaty existing at the time he en- 
tered his present office, is the direct result of an ineffi- 
cient State Department. Mr. Clark's endeavor to actually 
decrease the revenues which should accrue to the Gov- 
ernment of the United States from the operation of the 
Canal, by advocating free tolls for certain ships, admit- 
tedly United States ships, is antagonistic to good finance, 
in that the $400,000,000 cost, and annual up-keep, to- 
gether with the interest to bondholders, has to be repaid 
to the people who advanced it : and these very payments 
by the coastwise ship traffic would be a large factor in 
liquidation to the people on the investment they have 



98 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

made. Mr. Clark's arguments do not appear to be sound, 
financially or diplomatically, whatever they may be po- 
litically. His policy would result in the elimination of 
income derived from coastwise traffic which, proportion- 
ately, should be applicable to interest and the repayment 
of capital account to all the people, and secondly it in- 
volves the violation of a treaty. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 99 



CHAPTER XH. 
Mexico. 

In 1881 Mr, William Ewart Gladstone surrendered to 
the Boers in South Africa after Majuba. The last South 
African war was the outcome of that surrender. It was a 
sanguinary and long drawn out campaign. The position 
the United States occupies in relation to Mexico is simi- 
lar in some respects. It has not forcefully intervened to 
protect the lives or property of its people living in that 
Republic, nor in any respect has it caused prompt armed 
intervention to protect the lives or property of the sub- 
jects of foreign nations, although reprisals were in 
efifect on April 21st from other causes. This peculiar in- 
terpretation of the Monroe Doctrine is not in accordance 
with the application of the theory of "Policing Latin 
America," and the result may be, that begotten of this 
policy, the United States will have to participate in con- 
flicts sooner or later, much the same as England did in 
South Africa as a result of Mr. Gladstone's weak mili- 
tary policy. It is generally conceded that had he used a 
firm hand in 1881, the last war would have been unneces- 
sary. A firm military policy in Mexico today will obviate 
more serious complications later. 

The condition in Mexico for a year prior to and three 
years after the resignation of Porfirio Diaz was one of 
riotous bloodshed. The indiscriminate and unjustifiable 
slaughter of over three hundred unoffending and indus- 
trious Chinamen at Torreon by the Madero insurrection- 
itsts, was the most outrageous exhibition of blood-thirsti- 



100 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

ness ever enacted in a Christian country, excepting only 
St. Bartholomew. 

The children in Torreon played with the heads of the 
victims on the streets and pulled them about by the pig- 
tails. The Madero Government consented to a small in- 
demnity to China. 

The resignation of Diaz (I'^H) left Madero, who had 
been recognized by the United States as President despite 
the Chinese massacre, at the head of the Government. 
Assassination, insurrection and war were rife during his 
supremacy. At this time the Covadonga incident occurred : 
Two Germans, man and wife, were attacked by ]\Iader- 
istas. The wife was outraged by soldiers in the presence 
of her husband. She was then mutilated and broken beer 
bottles thrust into the amputated breasts. The husband 
was then killed. Photographs taken at the time, and now 
in possession of the American Press Association at New 
York, exhibit the shocking condition of the bodies of 
these foreign victims. The incident is well known at the 
German Foreign ofifice, and copies of the photographs are 
said to be in the possession of a very important German 
personage. 

An English ex-army officer, living at Tampico. who 
had expressed political opinions, was found decapitated 
near the banks of the Panuco River. The name of this 
officer is in possession of Colonel H. S. Fitzgerald, C. B., 
who had the matter brought to the attention of the House 
of Commons. But for the attention attracted to buzzards 
devouring the body, the murder would not have been dis- 
covered. 

In addition to the above was the murder of I\Ir. Mac- 
Kenzie and other Americans in Sonora during the Diaz 
administration. Mr. MacKenzie. a Yale graduate, was 
the partner of Mr. W. C. Potter, then a practicing min- 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 101 

ing engineer of Chicago, and a son-in-law of the late Mr. 
Paul Morton, ex-Secretary of the United States Navy. 

A condition of rapine and murder of Europeans, Asi- 
atic and United States citizen residents, has been con- 
tinuous in Mexico now for nearly four years, and the fol- 
lowing is an authentic partial list of the attrocities com- 
mitted : 

1. Mrs. Anderson, daughter and neighbor boy, killed 
June 22, 1911, Chihuahua. Murderers arrested by assist- 
ance of Americans. Confessed, served six months in jail 
and released. Madero soldiers. 

2. Mabel Richardson, little girl, outraged. Colonia 
Juarez. No attempt made to punish perpetrators. 

3. James D. Harvey, killed. State of Chihuahua. 
March, 1912, and mutilated with a spade. Nothing done. 

4. William Adams, killed July 2, 1912, with his 
daughter's arms around him, by Mexican officer. Noth- 
ing done. 

5. Thomas Fountain, executed after courtmartial by 
Salazar, at Parral, after protest from the U. S. Gov- 
ernment. Madero and others threatened by Mr. Taft. 
Nothing done. Salazar later arrested in the U. S. charged 
with smuggling and later released. Now being held at 
Fort Bliss. (Madero administration.) 

6. Joshua Stevens, killed near Colonia Pacheco, Mex- 
ico, August 26, 1912, in defending his daughters from at- 
tack. The girls, one with a stick, the other with a shot- 
gun, drove their assailants away. 

7. John Brooks, Texan, killed at Colonia Chuchucpa, 
Chihuahua, in 1913. (Insurrectionists.) 

8. Killing of Rogers Palmer, Englishman, because of 
failure to open safe at Durango about June 18, 1913. 
(Insurrectionists.) 



102 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

9. Wounding of Carlos Van Brandis and L. W. 
Elder, Americans, about the same time, by explosion of 
bomb used to force door where foreigners had taken ref- 
uge. Foreigners compelled to pay ransom. (Insurrec- 
tionists.) 

10. W. N. Steep, American, about the same time, shot 
on failure to pay 500 pesos. (Bandits.) 

11. A. W. Lauriaut, English subject, stripped, beat- 
en, shot and left for dead about the same time. (Bandits.) 

12. Edmund Hayes, American, employe of Madera 
Company ; also Robert Thomas, negro, killed at Madera 
by Mexican Federal officer, Santa Caraveo, and demand 
made by Secretary Bryan on Federals through embassy 
and Marion Letcher for arrest and punishment. Nothing 
done until September 11, when Senator Fall called atten- 
tion of the State Department and President to the fact 
that this officer was in Juarez, five minutes ride from El 
Paso. On the telegram he was formally arrested and later 
discharged. 

13. B. Stowe, shot in Chihuahua by rebels, 1912. 
Nothing done. 

14. Benjamin Griffin, rancher, murdered July 5, 1*^13, 
near Chuichupa by bandits. 

15. John H. Williams, mining engineer, killed by 
stray bullet March 8, 1913, when rebels attacked Xaco- 
zari. 

16. Boris Gorow, consulting engineer, killed when an 
attack was made on Neuvo Buena Vista on February 1 1 , 
1913. 

17. V. G. Wolf, mining engineer, murdered July 16, 
1913, by outlaws in Norlhorn Soiiora. 

18. Mrs. E. W. Holmes, killed by shell during bom- 
bardment of Mexico City, February, 1913. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 103 

19. Frank Ward, shot in back by bandits in his home 
near Yago, Tepic territory, April 9, 1913. 

20. John S. H. Howard, United States customs in- 
spector, assassinated near Eagle Pass, Tex., February 10, 
1913. 

21. Pablo Soto, merchant of Naco, Ariz., killed by a 
stray bullet March 8, 1913, when rebels attacked Naco- 
March 24, 1913. 

22. L. Bushnell, mounted police, killed in Naco, Ariz., 
March 24, 1913, by a bullet fired by rebels. 

23. Frank Howard, killed by bandits in Coalcoman, 
State of Michoacan, in March, 1913. 

24. Herbert L. Russell, manager of American Vice- 
Consul McCaughan's ranch near city of Durango, mur- 
dered by Rebels September 29, 1912. Consul Theodore 
C. Hamm cabled report to the Department of State. 

25. Robert Williams, policeman of Phoenix, Ariz., 
killed by Mexican bandits who crossed the line to attend 
a celebration of Mexican independence day in Phoenix, 
September 16, 1912. 

26. Scott Price, bystander, killed when bandits were 
firing on Williams. 

27. N. Matheson, aged and crippled Mormon, killed 
while fleeing from Colonia, Morelos, Sonora, September 
16, 1912, when bandits were looting town. 

28. McKenzie, an American resident, executed near 
Agua Prieta, September, 1912, because the Rebels sus- 
pected he had given information to Federal troops. 

29. W. H. Waite, manager of the Esmeraldas planta- 
tion at Ochotal, Vera Cruz, killed in April, 1912, when he 
refused to pay money demanded by bandits. He was be- 
headed. 

30. H. L. Strauss, formerly a newspaper correspond- 
ent, killed with thirty-four other non-combatants when 



104 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

Zapatistas held up train August 11, 1912, near Cuatla, 
Morelos. 

31. Thomas C. Kane, conductor on a Guanajuato 
railroad. Shot through head when bandits wrecked train 
at Silao and killed many passengers on April 10, 1912. 

32. Pehr Olsson Seffer, formerly a professor in the 
University of California, killed by rebels April 20, 1911, 
together with three of his servants near Cuernavaca. 

33. R. H. Ferguson, of San Francisco, a member of 
Troop F, Third U. S. Cavalry, killed by a bullet fired 
over the border. 

34. Two unidentified men killed May 9, 1911, in El 
Paso by stray bullets fired by Federals and Rebels. 

35. Dr. R. C. Clarke, Taylorsville, 111., shot dead in 
Mexico City May 27, 1911, by a partisan of General Diaz. 

36. John R. Lockhard, Scott City, Mo., mining engi- 
neer, killed by bandits in Durango, November, 1911. 

37. R. N. Meredith, Troy, Ohio, struck by bullet in 
Porter Hotel during the bombardment in Mexico Citv in 
February. 

38. Mrs. Percy Griffith, legs shot ofif during bombard- 
ment in Mexico City. 

39. A. E. Thomas, murdured by bandits while pro- 
tecting his wife and seven children near Xogales, Sonora, 
March 10, 1912. 

40. Robert Huntington, railroad switchman, shot 
without cause near Agua Prieta, April 13, l''ll. (Out- 
laws.) 

41. J. C. Edwards, native of \'irginia, shot to death 
while accidentally within rebel lines near Agua Prieta, 
April 13. 1911. 

42. Stephens Foster. Newark. X. ].. killed at Alamo, 
southern part of California, June, l''ll, because he had 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 105 

professionally treated a wounded insurgent a few days 
before. (Federalists.) 

43. John Hertling, Douglas, Ariz., German- American 
citizen, hanged near Nogales by rebels under Orozco, 
July, 1912. (Insurrectionists.) 

44. Guido Schubert, German, Douglas, Ariz., friend 
of Hertling; hanged at same time. (Insurrectionists.) 

45. John Camp, killed near U. S. Immigration station 
in El Paso, May 9, 1911, when the rebels attacked Juarez 

46. Antonio Garcia, killed at El Paso, May 9, 1911, 
by stray bullet fired by rebels. 

47. Clarence H. Cooper, throat cut with a knife and 
robbed at Pearson, August 4, 1913, he being the acting 
superintendent there. (Insurrectionists.) 

48. Graham Taylor, at Aguas Calientas ; English; 
robbed, stripped, August 13. 1913. Taylor died from 
wounds and left letter giving details of attack, addressed 
to his wife at Laredo, Texas. An unknown American 
was killed on same road two days before. (Anti- Ameri- 
can bandits.) 

49. Thomas or Theron Kelly, American; extra pas- 
senger conductor, said to have been the son of Rev. Ber- 
nard Kelly of Emporia, Kas., who was at one time chap- 
lain of the U. S. Congress. 

50. H. E. Mauders, superintendent of the express 
service on the Mexico Northwestern Railroad, native of 
Woodland, Cal. (Insurrectionists.) 

51. Lee Williams, assistant to the commissary man- 
ager at Madera, 25 years old, son of E. H. Williams of 
Philadelphia. ( Insurrectionists. ) 

52. John E. Webster, railroad conductor. (Insurrec- 
tionists.) 

53. E. J. McCutcheon, engineer. (Insurrectionists.) 



106 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

54. M. J. Gilmartin, superintendent of N. W. R. R. 
system. (Insurrectionists.) 

55. Bernard Schofield, railroad terminal superintend- 
ent in Juarez. (Insurrectionists.) 

56. J. I. Myers, railroad roadmaster of the Juarez di- 
vision. (Insurrectionists.) 

57. James Burgess. (Insurrectionists.) 

58. Mrs. Lee Carruth and five children. (Insurrec- 
tionists.) 

59. Alfred Olcott, wounded in Sonora with his part- 
ner in defending the latter's wife and daughter from out- 
rage. 

60. Clemente Vergara. (American.) 

61. Gustave Bauch. 

62. William Benton, English. 

63. Joshua Stevens, American, killed near Tampico. 
while defending his daughters from attack. 

64. One of the most terrihle cases was that of the 
killing of Frank Ward, an American, and the attack on 
his wife. Senator Fall informed the U. S. Senate Com- 
mittee there was on file in the American embassy at Mex- 
ico City, an affidavit by Mrs. Ward that when her hus- 
band was shot and was writhing in the pain of his horri- 
ble wounds, she was assailed by Mexican bandits, who 
then killed her husband. 

65. Mrs. Florence Stevens, English, injured during 
bombardment of Mexico City. 

66. Private Parks. U. S. A., executed at \'cra Cruz 
by General Mass (Federal). Taken jirisoner in uniform 
May, 1914. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 107 



CHAPTER Xni. 

Madero's supremacy was short. He had ascended by 
election from the grade of insurgent to the Federal head 
of Mexico and then he had to deal with what he, in turn, 
termed 'Tnsurrectos ;" with Emilio Zapata at the head of 
7000 men operating in the States of Vera Cruz and Mex- 
ico, who is perhaps the most unselfish patriot of all the 
modern Mexican malcontents, in that he has been fight- 
ing for a principle alone, and is accredited with giving 
receipts for what he commandeers. His fight is against 
the holding by individuals of enormous grants of land 
given by former governments. In 47 years, (1821 to 
1868) the form of government changed ten times, and 
over fifty persons succeeded each other as Presidents, 
Dictators and Emperors of Mexico. Both Emperors were 
shot ; Iturbide on his return from London in 1824, and 
Maximillian, neglected by Napoleon III, who had placed 
him on the Mexican throne, in 1867. 

The cause of Zapata's fight is an endeavor to rectify 
the wrongs of concession committed by these and more 
recent administrations. 

Francisco Madero was a wealthy, educated, impracti- 
cal idealist, but quite unsuited to the highly temperamen- 
tal and warlike nature of the Mexicans, which is inher- 
ited from the Conquistadores and Indian progenitors. He 
promised what may be termed a division of the land 
among his adherents. *Dos pertenencias y una vaca. This 
promise was unfulfilled after two years, and caused the 
fire of revolution to again break out in various parts of 



*"Three acres and a cow" kind of policy. 



108 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

the Republic. During this period, United States citizens 
and foreigners were openly assaulted, insulted on the 
streets of Mexico City and in other places, killed and 
their property destroyed. 

General Bernado Reyes, the former Governor of Xuevo 
Leon, took the field against him in 1912, but was quickly 
captured and imprisoned in Mexico D. F. During Janu- 
ary, 1913, intrigue matured into open rebellion, the stu- 
dents of Tlalpam released Reyes from prison, and the na- 
tional palace in Mexico City was attacked. 

Reyes was one of the first killed. General Diaz (nephew 
of Porfirio) and General Huerta quickly occupied the 
arsenal and bombarded the city. The streets were littered 
with dead and wounded. The President's uncle was as- 
sassinated and the President made prisoner and sub- 
sequently assassinated together with the Vice-President, 
Pino Suarez, in the National Palace by the tacit consent 
of General Huerta. After the assassination the dead 
bodies were placed in a motor car, and a counterfeit at- 
tempt to rescue was made by Huertistas by privy ar- 
rangement to obscure the truth while the car was en 
route between the palace and the penitentiary. 

Later General Huerta, by finesse, drove the younger 
Diaz from Mexico and assumed power, which was recog- 
nized by all foreign governments except the United 
States. Since that refusal Mexico has been a slaughter 
house and hotbed of insurrection. Its fires were kindled 
in every corner, and when partially extinguished in one 
place, broke out in another. 

In extent the damage to foreign property, commercial 
and industrial interests was incalcuablc. Railroads were 
destroyed and are economically inojierative. Bridges, cul- 
verts, and right of way were destroyed for hundreds of 
miles. Freight traffic was suspended. Troop trains at- 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 109 

tached to passenger trains were dynamited by other in- 
surrectionists and the loss of Hfe from all causes may be 
conservatively set down as exceeding 30,000 since the de- 
parture of General Diaz. The number of sick and wound- 
ed will never be known, as statistics covering the subject 
are as little regarded as are the unorganized commissary 
or medical corps. 

Certainly the business interests of Paris, Berlin, New 
York and London wish to know how the matter is to be 
adjusted. The bonds of the destroyed railroads had been 
purchased in those cities. The railroad investment is not 
the only one. Foreign owned mines and industries where 
millions of foreign capital have been employed, are closed 
to operation. Smelters at Chihuahua, Torreon, Monte- 
rey, Aguas Calientes and San Luis Potosi, involving more 
hundreds of millions of foreign capital, have suspended 
operations. 

The oil fields of Vera Cruz and Tamaulipas were 
threatened and harrassed and the export production dou- 
bly taxed by the conflicting parties. These interests alone 
may easily be valued in combined European and United 
States capital at an aggregate of $500,000,000. One Eng- 
lish company, the Aguila, alone has an investment of 
8,000,000 pounds sterling and one American company 
(Doheny's interests) an investment of $50,000,000 while 
there are seventy other operative oil concerns in the Vera 
Cruz fields, including the Southern Pacific Railroad ; 
John Hays Hammond's interests (Goldfields of South 
Africa, Limited) and the Waters Pierce Oil Company, 
whose works were reported destroyed in April, 1914, to 
gether with other foreign interests, with a loss of $5,- 
000,000. 

Foreign banks in Mexico have refused deposits and 
have practically suspended business. German shipping 



110 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

firms and German ships are suffering, so also are those 
of EngHsh and United States firms. The loss to foreign 
investors is, computed in the aggregate, in the neighbor- 
hood of $1,500,000 (gold) per day. 

Both the British and German Governments have pro- 
tested vigorously concerning the non-protection of the 
Vera Cruz oil fields. Their interest is due to oil con- 
tracts for their navies. 

After the Marconi investigation, which involved cer- 
tain members of the British Cabinet, public feeling was 
that members of the Government should abstain from 
speculation in Government projects. While this subject 
was "white-hot" in the Parliament, Mr. Winston Church- 
ill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, informed the House 
in words to the effect that he did not care if members of 
the House owned shares in the Eagle (Aguila) Oil Com- 
pany (Lord Cowdray's), but proposed to publicly inform 
them that an oil contract for the (British) Navy would 
be let to that company. About that time Lord Cowdray 
let contracts for the building of twenty oil tank steam- 
ers of an average carrying capaciy of 12,CX)0 tons each, 
to ship oil from Tampico and Tuxpan to Europe. Most 
of these are in commission today. 

As Lord Murray (of Elibank), formerly chief Liberal 
whip of the present Liberal government, is an associate 
of Lord Cowdray, and as the latter in addition to his oil 
interests in Mexico, is interested in the Isthmian Railroad 
of Tchuantepec, it is not difficult to imagine the source of 
British anxiety and pressure for protection. 

Is the British Government entitled to it from the Unit- 
ed States Government in view of Mr. Olney's interpreta- 
tion of the Monroe Doctrine? Fair minded men will say: 
Yes ! The United States Government is not dealing with 
private corporations in this instance, such as the Hu- 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 111 

asteca Oil Company, or Mexican Petroleum Company, 
whose American interests can apparently be disregarded 
with impunity. The interests of the Government of Great 
Britain are directly affected and the pressure behind its 
complaint to the British Cabinet, not only on Lord Cow- 
dray's account, but because the Mexican situation effects 
the oil supply for the British Navy. The neutrality of that 
navy might be appreciated some day by the United States 
Government in the event of trouble with Asiatics. Ger- 
many is also scowling for similar and other reasons. 

Will the State Department of the United States ever 
realize that barbarians must be conquered before they can 
be pampered ? It is the simple history of civilization. The 
sword in one hand, fire-water in the other and the Holy 
Script may follow. That has been Britain's method of 
civilization and colonization, and by that method it has 
overturned tyranny, rebellion and barbarism on three 
continents in the last three decades, and now controls the 
whole of one continent, the major part of another, nearly 
one-half of North America and a very large part of Asia 
These annexations matured during the Victorian period. 
Queen Victoria hated war, but never avoided it when the 
occasion demanded it for the uplifting of Britain and ex- 
tension of civilization. Great Britain had to fight for ex- 
pansion and civilization, so will America or be humiliated. 
France and Germany adopted the same policy. The Unit- 
ed States is merely temporizing. 

In Mexico Spanish subjects were expelled without rea- 
son, except that they are Spaniards. 

A dispatch to the Press from El Paso, Texas, dated 
April 8th, 1914, said: 

"The Spanish refugees from Torreon began crossing 
the international bridges (El Paso) shortly after eight 
o'clock this morning, it was not until this evening that the 



112 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

last of the unhappy refugees was safe on the American 
side. 

"The delay was caused by the physical examination of 
the 600 men, women and children composing the caval- 
cade. 

"The examination of the baggage was merely perfunc- 
tory, they having no baggage except a few small grips 
and some bundles of clothing. All had been taken from 
them before leaving Torreon. 

"Refugees said tliat they had been stripped of most of 
their belongings of value before being put on board the 
train at Torreon. They were forced to open the bundles 
and the Mexican officers took all new articles of cloth- 
ing and all articles of linen that were clean, saying to the 
Spaniards: 'When you came to Mexico you had nothing 
but a dirty shirt, and you can leave Mexico that way.' 
Among the refugees are some of the richest and most 
prominent of the Spanish residents of Mexico, chief 
among them being Rafael Arozarena, cotton king and mil- 
lionaire of the Lagima district. Like others, he brought 
but a small hand grip containing some clothing. 

"Other prominent Spanish business men of note among 
the refugees are Jose A. Gonio, J. Serano and A. Arre- 
bijillaya. 

"The Roman Catholic priests of Torreon were also ex- 
iled with the Spanish subjects. One of the exiles is Gen- 
eral Ricon Gallardo, who is a Spanish subject and re- 
tains his title of Marquis de Guadalupe." 

Inconsistency of action is again clearly demonstrated 
on the part of the U. S. Emigration officers. These poor 
harrassed refugees were made to go through the pre- 
scribed form of medical examination with a fair chance 
that many of their number might be refused admission ; 
in wliich case thcv would have been between the "I>evil 




GENERAL PORFIRIO DIAZ 

President of the United States of Mexico for thirty-four years. He raised 

the Republic to a high plane of prosperity, and on retiring 

left $40,000,000 in gold in its treasury 



!^T THE EDGE OF THE PIT 113 

and the deep sea ;"' whereas the same government but a 
few weeks before took to its heart and nourished, without 
question, preliminary examination or quibble, some five 
thousand filthy followers and deserting soldiers of both 
sides, Mexicans with all their dogs, cats, chickens and 
other live stock. 

The German Consul at Vera Cruz received a wireless 
message from the German Cruiser "Dresden" stationed 
at Tampico, to send to that port as quickly as possible 
the German steamer Kronprinzessin Cecilie to facilitate 
the embarkation of fleeing German victims. 

Neither Europe nor Asia takes "America" seriously in 
its foreign policy. They view it tolerantly and with grim 
humor. 

What Europe does take seriously is, that "America" is 
a good customer and a convenience, and is temporarily 
placid. The opinion has been advanced, and not unrea- 
sonably, that the American expression, "How much is 
there in it for me ?" sums up the growing attitude of the 
country in politics as well as in religious schisms, and that 
most other things are subsidiary to that question and its 
answer. 

The administration of the United States has been in- 
effective in pacifying- the Mexican condition. The Ameri- 
can people with red blood in their veins feel humiliated 
at the government's attitude of indecision, inactivity and 
apparent infirmity. 

After all there may be good reason for timidity or 
what appears to be the chief consideration, apart from 
the cost in lives and treasure, and that is the country's 
unpreparedness to undertake armed intervention. 

The policy of the U. S. Government in removing the 
embargo on the exportation of arms from the United 
States into Mexico has been questioned. Only the Revo- 



114 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT* 

lutionists could benefit by it. The Federalists could always 
get arms through the seaports which they controlled. 
This exported war material soon may be used against the 
United States in the event of the United States occupy- 
ing Mexico. In the latter event, probably every warring 
faction in Mexico would be allied for its defense. 

If the government of the United States is forcing on 
Europe the present misunderstanding of the Monroe 
Doctrine, it is in honor bound to protect foreign lives and 
interests in Latin America. If not, the reasonable method 
would be to invite the powers to join with the United 
States, and land an allied force in Mexican ports, as in 
the Chinese occupation; or for the United States to es- 
tablish an embargo against all war materials, collect and 
administer the custom receipts of all ports as in the in- 
sular fund of Cuba ; nominate a Mexican for the Presi- 
dency, uphold him with a firm hand and thus bring about 
an amicable adjustment. The policy of handing to the 
Revolutionists a knife wherewith to cut the Federal throat, 
as Mr. Bryan has done, is fatal to foreign interests and 
is what might be construed as a vacillating efifort to let the 
Mexicans deplete their own fighting forces prior to armed 
intervention by the unprepared forces of the United 
States. 

The obstruction offered to foreign industry, together 
with the rape of United States women and the murder 
of United States citizens and other foreigners by Mexi- 
cans in Mexico, has been pointedly disregarded, except 
that weak official protests were made through the Charge 
d'Affaires, until the incident of the arrest of the United 
States sailors occurred by a Mexican Federal of^cial at 
Tampico. The admiral (Mayo) demanded an apology 
and a gun salute. The former was tendered and the lat- 
ter refused by General Hucrta, who claimed the apology 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 115 

he extended was sufficient. A fleet was sent to the Mexi- 
can Gulf to enforce the sahite. General Huerta cleverly 
insisted that a simultaneous salute be fired. This qualified 
apology, it is reported, Mr. Wilson readily consented to 
at first, and his consent in view of Section 102 U. S. 
navy regulations which reads as follows : 

"No salute shall be fired in honor of any nation or 
of any official of any nation not formally recognized by 
the Government of the United States." 

This elicited the following comments from United 
States Senator Borah : 

"The condition is 'opera bouffe' that would be laughed 
at all around the world." 

Other senators were not so willing to accept the pre- 
cedents advocated by the administration. Those prece- 
dents they said, might be all right in the case of an es- 
tablished government, but ought not to apply in the case 
of Mexico, where the government never had been "form- 
ally" recognized. On general principles there was much 
criticism of the "way out" of closing the incident. 

"The language of the naval regulations appears per- 
fectly plain," said Senator Bristow. "How can you de- 
mand a salute from a country where you refuse to rec- 
ognize its government? When Mr. Wilson demanded of 
Huerta that he order the flag saluted, he made the de- 
mand not of the individual, but of the government. 

"You cannot escape from the fact that saluting in re- 
ply to the salute given us as an apology, recognizes the 
Huertan government in Mexico. In ordering this to be 
done, the President revises the naval regulations, giving 
to Huerta full standing as the actual head of the govern- 
ment, fully and completely recognized by the United 
States. 



116 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

"This whole performance is assinine. If that is all this 
administration purposed doing why send the whole At- 
lantic fleet to Mexican waters? There were plenty of 
vessels there already to reply to Huerta's salute of apol- 
ogy- 

"This looks to me much like 'baby play' and not the 

manner of doing things by a great government, but there 
are many odd things done by this government for which 
we cannot account. In my judgment it results merely in 
a recognition of Huerta and his government. As the situ- 
ation has turned out it seems to me he should have been 
recognized long ago as the de facto government in the 
territory he controls, and Carranza as the head of the de 
facto government in the territory he controls. Then both 
could have been held responsible for Americans in their 
own territory, and gone ahead and fought their troubles 
to an end, and we would have had the friendship of both 
sides. As it is now we are acting in a ridiculous manner 
and it will be so regarded b\- the American people. We 
will be the joke of the civilized world." 

"I think the less said about this performance the bet- 
ter it will be," said Senator Works of California. "It 
must strike the world as peculiar to say the least." 

The foreign press editorially voices foreign govern- 
mental opinion on the subject. 

"The Daily Telegraph of London did not believe Presi- 
dent Wilson intends to put into effect a resolute military 
intervention, and sees no hoj)c of putting an end 'to the 
anarchy, which has resulted from the Wilson policy of 
moral intervention." 

"The Daily Graphic considers President Wilson's high 
moral purposes have landed the L'nited States and the 
President himself 'in a situation of the greatest difficulty 
and embarrassment.' " 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 117 

The Graphic continues : 

"Mexico must now be conquered or left alone. The 
idea that intervention can be limited to the occupation of 
Tampico and Vera Cruz, is a fresh delusion tvhich zvill 
be speedily shattered." 

The Standard : 

"The big stick which Roosevelt would have used long 
ago has at last been grasped. The door of peace is still 
open, but it rests with Huerta to avail himself of the 
chance." 

The Daily Mail : 

"If President Huerta has the sense with which he is 
generally credited in Europe, he will lose no time in mak- 
ing- his amende honorable to the United States. That he 
should deliberately provoke war with so formidable a 
power on the question of a salute seems unthinkable." 

The Mail believes that in the event of war and the 
ejection of Huerta a temporary protectorate of Mexico 
is inevitable and adds : 

*"President Wilson is too wise and humane a ruler to 
consign a vast country to the sheer anarchy which is 
bound to follow the collapse of such a government as 
now exists in Mexico." 

The Chronicle : 

"That any sovereign state might, without loss of dig- 
nity have condoned the Tampico affront on receipt of the 
apology which Huerta has already tendered." 



*This argument may also be applied to Villa and Carranza 
should they succeed. 



118 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 



CHAPTER XIV. 

All this time the situation was unaltered in Mexico in 
relation to the condition of foreigners, and without relief 
from the nation whose duty is is to alleviate their sufifer- 
ings. 

The policy of the United States was one of wavering 
inaction. It did no more to forcibly command peace in 
Mexico than did any other nation, although its citizens 
were the greatest sufferers from the depredations of the 
Mexicans. No reprisal was made on the grounds of the 
murder and rape of its citizens, or the destruction of their 
possessions. Instead arms were permitted, by administra- 
tive edict, to cross the frontier for the Insurrectionists 
who are responsible for many murders, including the mur- 
der of the British subject Benton. Peace at any price was 
the attitude of the State Department. 

This condition existed until an incident occurred which 
is best described in the words of the President of the 
United States, delivered to Congress on April 20th, 1914, 
as follows : 

"Gentlemen of the Congress : It is my duty to call your 
attention to a situation which has arisen in our dealings 
with General Victoriano Huerta at Mexico City, which 
calls for action, and to ask your advice and co-operation 
in acting upon it. 

"On the ninth of April a paymaster of the United States 
ship Dolphin landed at Iturbide bridge landing at Tam- 
pico with a whaleboat and boat's crew to take off certain 
supplies needed by the ship, and while engaged in load- 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 119 

ing the boat was arrested by an officer and squad of men 
of General Huerta's. 

"Neither the paymaster nor anyone of the boat's crew 
were armed. Two of the men were in the boat when the 
arrest took place, and were obliged to leave it and submit 
to being taken into custody, notwithstanding the fact that 
the boat carried, both at her bow and at her stern, the flag 
of the United States.* 

"The officer who made the arrest was proceeding upon 
one of the streets of the town with his prisoners when 
met by an officer of higher authority, who ordered him 
to return to the landing and await orders ; and within an 
hour and a half from the time of the arrest, orders were 
received from the commander of the Huertista forces at 
Tampico for the release of the paymaster and his men. 

"The release was followed by apologies from the com- 
mander and later by an expression of regret by General 
Huerta himself. General Huerta urged that martial law 
obtained at the time at Tampico ; that orders had been 
issued that none should be allowed to land at Iturbide 
bridge ; and that our sailors had no right to land there. 

"Our naval commander at the port had not been noti- 
fied of any such prohibition, and even if they had been, 
the only justifiable course open to the local authorities 
would have been to request the paymaster and his crew 
to withdraw, and to lodge a protest with the commanding 
officer of the fleet. 

"Admiral Mayo regarded the arrest as so serious an 
affront that he was not satisfied with the apologies 
offered, but demanded that the flag of the United States 



*General Huerta denies this. There is a very low railway 
trestle under which boats have to pass to the landing at Tampico 
from the River Panuco. The possibility of striking the flag pole 
in order to clear the trestle should be considered. 



120 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

be saluted with special ceremony by the military com- 
mander of the port. 

"The incident cannot be regarded as a trivial one, espec- 
ially as two of the men arrested were taken from the 
boat itself — that is to say, from territory of the United 
States; but had it stood by itself it might have been 
attributed to the ignorance or arrogance of a single officer. 
Unfortunately it was not an isolated case. A series of 
incidents have recently occurred which cannot but create 
the impression that representatives of General Huerta 
w^ere willing to go out of their way to show disregard 
for the dignity and rights of this government, and felt 
perfectly safe in doing what they pleased, making free to 
show in many ways their irritation and contempt. 

"A few days after the incident at Tampico an orderly 
from the United States ship Minnesota was arrested in 
Vera Cruz while ashore in uniform to obtain the ship's 
mail and was for a time thrown in jail. 

"An official dispatch from this government to its em- 
bassy in Mexico City was withheld by the authorities of 
the telegraphic service until peremptorily demanded by 
our Charge d'Affaires in person. 

"So far as I can learn such wrongs and annoyances 
have been suffered to occur only against representatives 
of the United States. I have heard of no complaints from 
any other government of similar treatment. 

"Subsequent explanation and formal apologies did not 
and could not alter the popular impression which it is 
possible it had been the object of the Huertista authorities 
to create, that the governnient of the United States was 
being singled out and might be singled out with impunity, 
for slights and affronts in retaliation for its refusal to 
recognize the pretensions of General Huerta to be re- 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 121 

garded as Constitutional President of the Republic of 
Mexico. 

"The manifest danger of such a situation was that such 
offenses might grow from bad to worse until something 
happened of so gross and intolerable a sort, as to lead 
directly and inevitably to armed conflict. 

"It was necessary that the apologies of General Huerta 
and his representatives should go much further, that they 
should be such as to attract the attention of the whole 
population to their significance, and such as to impress 
upon General Huerta himself the necessity of seeing to 
it that no further occasion for explanations and professed 
regrets should arise. 

"I therefore felt it my duty to sustain Admiral Mayo 
in the whole of his demand, and insist that the flag of the 
United States should be saluted in such a way as to indi- 
cate a new spirit and attitude on the part of the Huert- 
istas. 

"Such a salute General Huerta has refused and I have 
come to ask your approval and support in the course I 
now propose to pursue. 

"This government can, I earnestly hope, in no circum- 
stances be forced into war with the people of Mexico. 
Mexico is torn by civil strife. If we are to accept the 
tests of its own constitution it has no government. Gen- 
eral Huerta has set his power up in Mexico City, such as 
it is, without right and by methods for which there can 
be no justification. Only a part of the country is under 
his control. If an armed conflict should unhappily come 
as a result of his attitude of personal resentment toward 
this government we should be fighting only General 
Huerta and those who adhere to him and give him their 
support, and our object would be only to restore to the 



122 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

people of the distracted republic the right to set up again 
their own laws and their own government. 

"But I earnestly hope war is not now in question. I 
believe I speak for the American people when I say that 
we do not desire to control in any degree the affairs of 
our sister republic. *0h;' feeling for the people of Mexico 
is one of deep and genuine friendship and everything that 
we have done so far or refrained from doing has pro- 
ceeded from our desire to help them, and not to hinder 
or embrarrass them. 

"We would not wish even to exercise our offices of 
friendship without their welcome and consent. The peo- 
ple of Mexico are entitled to settle their own domestic 
affairs in their own way and we sincerely desire to re- 
spect their right. The present situation need have none 
of the grave implications of interferences, if we deal with 
it promptly, firmly and wisely. 

"No doubt I could do what is necessary in the circum- 
stances to enforce respect for our government, without 
recourse to Congress and yet not exceed my constitu- 
tional powers as President; but I do not wish to act, in 
a matter possibly of so grave consequence, except in close 
conference and co-operation with both Senate and House. 

"I therefore come to ask your approval that I should 
use the armed forces of the United States in such ways 
and to such extent as may be necessary to obtain from 
General Huerta and his adherents the fullest recognition 
of the rights and dignity of the United States, even amidst 
the distressing conditions now imhappily obtaining in 
Mexico. 

"There can. in what wc do, bo no thought of aggres- 
sion or of selfish aggrandizement. We seek to maintain 



*Mr. Wilson's feelings were apparently not affected by the 
outrages listed on pages loi to 107. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 123 

the dignity and authority of the United States only be- 
cause we wish to keep our great influence unimpaired for 
the uses of liberty, both in the United States and wher- 
ever else it may be employed for the benefit of mankind." 

The precise programme is not indicated in Mr. Wilson's 
speech. His actions indicate factional coalition with the 
bandit Villa against General Huerta. General Huerta's 
ambassadors were at foreign courts and were recognized, 
and his minister was at Washington. Mr. O'Shaughnessy 
was at Mexico City dealing with the Mexican government 
through General Huerta. Villa and his Revolutionists had 
no recognized representatives abroad. 

General Huerta, the strongest man in Mexico since 
Porfirio Diaz, did his best to protect foreign interests 
up to the landing of United States marines at Vera Cruz. 
Villa and Carranza, on the contrary, were parties to the 
murder of Benton, and the unsatisfactory attitude of these 
men during the international inquiry, coupled with Car- 
ranza's reply to the United States, plainly stating that he 
did not recognize the right of its State Department to in- 
quire into the matter of the death of a British subject. 

The day following Mr. Wilson's speech to Congress, 
the United States Admiral (Fletcher) landed marines at 
Vera Cruz, the time limit for the salute which was not 
fired having expired. The landing resulted in four United 
States sailors being killed and twelve wounded, and dur- 
ing the ensuing week the number increased to eighteen 
killed and seventy-three wounded. Some two hundred 
Mexicans were killed and wounded during this period by 
United States marines. 

General Huerta then recalled his rninister from Wash- 
ington and handed the United States Charge d'Affaires 
his passports and the following letter : 



124 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

"Mexico, April 22, 1914. 
"Mr. Charge d'Affaires : 

"Assuredly your honor knows that the marines of the 
American ships of war anchored off the port of Vera 
Cruz, availing themselves of the circumstance that the 
Mexican authorities had given them access to the harbor 
and the town because they considered their presence was 
of a friendly character, disembarked yesterday with their 
arms and uniforms and possessed themselves by surprise 
of the principal public buildings without giving time for 
the women and children in the streets, the sick and other 
non-combatants to place themselves in safety. 

"This act was contrary to international usages. If 
these usages do not demand, as held by many states, a 
previous declaration of war, they impose at least the duty 
of not violating humane consideration or good faith by 
people whom the country which they are in has received 
as friends, and who therefore should not take advantage 
of that circumstance to commit hostile acts. 

"These acts of the armed forces of the United States 
I do not care to qualify in this note, out of deference to 
the fact that your honor personally has observed toward 
the Mexican government and people a most strictly cor- 
rect conduct, as far as that has been possible to you in 
your character as the representative of a government with 
which we have been in such serious difficulties as these 
existing. 

"Regarding the initiation of war against Mexico, thi^ 
ministry reserves to itself the rii^ht of presenting to other 
powers the ere)its and considerations pertinent to tliis 
matter, in order that they, as members of the concert of 
nations, may judge of the conduct of the two nations, and 
adopt an attitude which they may deem jiroper in view 
of this deplorable outrage upon our nation's sovereignty. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 125 

''The President of the Republic of Mexico has seen fit 
to tenninate, as I have the honor to communicate to your 
honor, the diplomatic mission which your honor has until 
noiv discharged. You will have the goodness to retire 
from Mexican territory. To that end / enclose your pass- 
port, at the same time informing you that, as is the diplo- 
matic custom on such occasions, a special train will be at 
your disposal with a guard sufficient to protect your 
honor, your family and your staff, although the Mexican 
people are sufficiently civilized to respect, even without 
this protection, your honor and those accompanying you. 

"I take this opportunity to reiterate to your honor the 
assurances of my highest consideration. 

(Signed) "Jose Lopez Portillo Rojas." 
(Huerta's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.) 



126 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 



CHAPTER XV. 

After the murder and violation of one hundred "Amer- 
icans" by various Mexican Insurrectionists during the 
past four years, Mr. Wilson is alleged to have said to the 
newspaper men at Washington : 

'T want to say to you, gentlemen, do not get the impres- 
sion that there is about to be war between the United 
States and Mexico. That is not the outlook at present, 
at all. In the first place, in no conceivable circumstances 
will we fight the people of Mexico." 

To discipline General Huerta personally for the mur- 
derous acts of the Mexican people, would not in any way 
correct the decadent state of that country, neither would 
it drown the fires of insurrection or the political chaos 
which must and will continue, until a superior force com- 
pels all Mexicans to realize their international responsi- 
bilities. Neither Carranza nor V^illa nor Zapata nor 
Orozco or the whole bandit quartette acting in concert 
could ever maintain peace in Mexico for two continuous 
years. Other aspirants for the Presidency would "bob 
up" and with as much right as any of these and with as 
great financial support. 

Carranza and Villa have quite as many enemies as has 
General Huerta. Elevate either of them and give them 
the power and resources of Huerta, and exactly the same 
revolutionary condition would exist as exists today, ex- 
cept that the name of Carranza or Villa would be sub- 
stituted for that of Huerta. 

The antecedents of General \'illa as hereafter shown, 
should disqualify him and his irresponsible superiors and 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 127 

subordinates from any consideration whatsoever by the 
State Department of the United States on the same 
grounds that Mr. Wilson has disquaHfied General Huerta. 
Mr. Carruthers, the United States emissary, has been 
constantly in conference with Villa, to the end that his in- 
surgent forces should join the United States forces, or re- 
main neutral in the endeavor of the United States to oust 
General Huerta from the Presidency. The personal ele- 
ment entering into the question of the endeavor of the 
State Department of the United States to achieve Gen- 
eral Huerta's resignation, even to the extent of a coali- 
tion with this murderous bandit brute, seems amazingly 
inexplicable. 

The dignity of the United States Military and Naval 
Departments has been flouted by the State Department in 
its request for Villa's support of neutrality, and the sub- 
sequent refusal of General Carranza (Villa's insurgent 
partner) to coalesce, to remain neutral or to cease fighting 
in northern Mexico, pending the solicited mediation of 
the A. B. C. arbitrators, throws a spotlight on the com- 
bined frailty and timidity of the administration. 

Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, read the following to 
the United States Senate on May 5th, 1914, relative to 
"General" Villa : 

"Born at Las Niegres, Durango, 1868. When 14 he 
was sentenced to imprisonment for cattle stealing. On 
his discharge, settled in a mining camp at Guanacevi. 
where a few months later he underwent imprisonment for 
homicide. Upon his second release from prison he organ- 
ized a band of robbers with headquarters in the moun- 
tainous region of 'Perico' in Durango. 

"In 1907 he was in partnership with one Francisco 
Reza stealing cattle in Chihuahua and selling them in the 



128 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

United States, and stealing mules and horses in the United 
States and selling them in Chihuahua. 

"He killed Reza while sitting in the plaza in the City 
of Chihuahua. In early November, 1910, he attacked the 
factory of Mr. Sono in Aliende and killed him. By threat- 
ening the daughter he obtained $11,000. He joined the 
Madero revolution in January, 1911, at Casa Grand, he 
killed Carlos Alatorre and Louis Ortiz for refusing to 
pay the ransom money demanded. 

"In February of the same year at Batopilas, he tor- 
tured Senora Marie de la Luz Gomez. 

"When Ciudad Juarez was taken in May, 1911, he kill- 
ed Ignacio Gomez Oyola, an aged and infirm man of 60, 
because he denied that he had arms concealed on his 
premises. 

"Early in May, 1913, Villa with seventy-five men at- 
tacked a bullion train in Chihuahua, killing the crew and 
several passengers, including Senor Caravante and Senor 
Isaac Herrerro of Ciudad Guicerro. In the same month, 
but later, at San Andres he assaulted the house of Sabas 
Murga. Two nephews of this man were killed, but ]\lurga 
escaped. Sons-in-law of Murga, who had not taken a part 
in the fight, were captured, tortured and then killed. 

"That month \'illa's band took the town of Saint Ros- 
alia, shooting all prisoners and treating the principal of- 
ficers with terrible cruelty. Business houses were sacked, 
and many private persons were murdered, the worst case 
being that of Senor Alontilla, cashier of a bank. He was 
shot, over the head of his wife, who was attempting to 
defend him. \'illa kicked the wife in the face as she lay 
over the dead body of her husband. He killed Senor 
Ramos, secretary of the Court of First Instance of Santa 
Rosalia, arrested twenty of the principal people and ter- 
rorized them until he obtained 70,000 pesos. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 129 

"In July, 1913, Villa took Casas Grandes and shot more 
than eighty non-combatants, violating several young girls, 
among them two young ladies named Castillo. 

"In September, 1913, he took the town of San Andres, 
shooting many peaceable residents and more than 150 
prisoners, many of these being women and children. 

"In order to conserve his ammunition. Villa ordered 
these victims to stand four deep, one behind the other, so 
that the same bullet would do the work for four. Few of 
these victims were killed outright. The dead and wound- 
ed were soaked in petroleum and together thrown into a 
bonfire. 

"Following this he took a small towm, Carretas, where 
he found an old man of 70, Jose Moreno, from whom he 
demanded $200. He couldn't pay and Villa killed the man 
with his own hand. 

"September 29, 1913, having overpowered a force of 
500 Federals near Torreon, Villa had every prisoner shot. 
Toward the end of November he took Juarez. Nearly all 
the Federal officers were shot as well as some sixty odd 
non-combatants. 

"December 8, 1913, Villa captured Chihuahua and 
seized all the commercial houses of Spaniards and Mexi- 
cans. He expelled all the Spaniards. Two Spaniards were 
beaten to death. 

"Villa took prisoner two children of 14 years, called 
Lorenzo Arellano and Alfonso Moliner. Private houses 
and motor cars were seized and turned over to public 
women for their nightly orgies. 

"In Chihuahua Villa had shot 150 non-combatants. 
Ignacio Irigoyan and Jose A. Yanez, not connected in 
any way with the political situation, were tortured fright- 
fully and finally paid $20,000 each for their ransom. Villa 



130 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

then gave them a safe conduct and permitted them to 
start for the United States. They were pursued by Villa's 
men, taken from the train and shot. 

"The Benton murder at Juarez in which Villa figured, 
is of recent memory." 

The "holdup" of the Terrasas family for $500,000 un- 
der the threat of putting to death one of the sons then a 
prisoner in Villa's hands, was an act of brigandage un- 
equalled at any time in Italy or Spain. 

Mr. H. B. Guthrey, field superintendent of the Pear- 
son Oil Syndicate of Tampico, gave the following inter- 
view to the Los Angeles Examiner on Way 5th, 1914: 

"Tampico today is a city of pestilence. Dead bodies 
lie in the streets. Three and a half tons of silver ($420,- 
000 gold value) lie in the banks, unless Mexicans have 
already secured this. 

"As for the oil companies, they are in constant fear 
that the Rebels will blow up the wells outside the city. It 
must be remembered that the Royal Dutch Company 
(English and Dutch) has a well which gives 100,000 bar- 
rels of oil a day. Once the cap is dynamited from this 
well there would simply be a wasted and ever increasing 
lake of oil. We have a well, the Potrero del Llano, which 
gives 110.000 barrels a day, and it is quite unprotected. 

"I came up on the 'Connecticut" with 470 refugees. We 
took three prisoners from the jail with us and a baby was 
born on the way to Galveston. The Government gave us 
transportation wherever we wanted to go. 

"President Wilson may be said to have joined the 
Rebels. Uncle Sam should have stepped right in after the 
first insult and beat the tar out of the Mexicans. That is 
the only and possible course. About $900,000,000 in 
American capital is invested in Mexico and wc cannot go 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 131 

back and resume business until the country is protected 
properly." 

Looking at the situation from any angle : The adminis- 
tration's policy of "watching and waiting" is not conduc- 
ive to patriotic pride, whatever it may be in the conserva- 
tion of its treasure or lives of its soldiers at the sacrifice 
of its dignity among nations. Why? Because there was 
relief, if unpreparedness was the cause of moral instead 
of armed intervention, in the scheme of allied interven- 
tion, or peaceful blockade. 

The contradictory situation extant, primarily created 
by Mr. Taft in readily recognizing one idealist (Presi- 
dent Madero) in view of the Chinese atrocities at Torreon, 
and the non-recognition of General Huerta by another 
idealist on the grounds that the assassination of President 
Madero and Pino Suarez was instigated by General 
Huerta, again establishes a paradoxical condition in the 
vacillating foreign policy of the United States. Both 
policies were academic, but they were contradictory. 

E. L. Doheny of the Mexican Petroleum Company said 
on the 29th of April : "Those men, women and children 
in and near Tampico were left to shift for themselves, 
among an angry mob of American-haters, who were 
worked up to a frenzy by a combination of villainous 
liquors and incendiary speeches furnished and delivered 
to them by influential members of the community, so far 
as help from American warships and the American flag 
were concerned, even admitting that dilatory efforts were 
made to rescue these poor, abandoned Americans by re- 
questing the soldiers and flags of other nations to furnish 
that security which they had a right to expect from their 
own government." 



132 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The following is the text of a resolution adopted by 
the American refugees upon landing at Galveston, Texas, 
and sent to United States Senators in Washington : 

"We, American citizens, residing in Mexico, who 
have just been driven from our homes at Tampico by a 
savage mob, wish to protest against, and give wide public- 
ity to, the timid and unpatriotic action of the United 
States government, in withdrawing our warships from 
the harbor at Tampico at the moment when the lives of 
2000 American women, children and unarmed men were 
utterly at the mercy of the Mexican mob, which, crazed 
by rum and patriotism, inspired by incendiary and anti- 
American proclamations and speeches, were preparing to 
attack, and did attack, American citizens who had placed 
their helpless women and children in the building of the 
Southern Hotel, under the protection of those few of us 
who had not yet been disarmed by the Mexican author- 
ities. 

"We ivish the American people to knozv that ive ozs^e 
our lives solely to the prompt and decisive action of the 
commander of the German gimboat Dresden, who, at this 
crucial moment, threatened the Mexican authorities with 
drastic and punitive measures, and thus rescued us under 
the German flag, delivering us on board our United States 
warships, in the open seas. We owe our lives today to the 
brave Germans, with their one small boat, and not in any 
way to the action of our own government. We further- 
more protest against the present non-protection by our 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 133 

own government of the millions of dollars worth of 
American property in and near Tampico." 

In other issues of even more serious import, it is ques- 
tionable how efficiently afifairs of state have been negoti- 
ated, especially those embracing the vital and delicate 
situation involving this country with Japan, and those 
European powers having treaties with Japan. 

The incidents involving the United States are : 

First: In the case of Mexico, the non-recognition of 
General Huerta as President of that Republic by President 
Wilson and the result; the refusal of the United States 
Government to specifically intervene for the protection of 
foreign interests during the four years of civil war in 
Mexico. 

Second: In the case of Japan. The diplomatic cause 
of irritation, arising from the elimination of Russia and 
China from the Pacific and Japan's consequent increased 
development as a Pacific power, as against United States 
Pacific expansion ; the destruction of the Hawaiian mon- 
archy and the annexation and fortification of those islands 
by the United States. 

(2) '* While the establishment of United States naval 
and military bases is in progress in the Pacific, Japan has 
prepared for it in so eiTective a manner that notwith- 
standing what the naval forces of the United States may 
be in the future, the Hawaiian Islands can be seized from 
within and converted into a Japanese naval and military 
base so quickly, that they will be impregnable to the power 
of this Republic."* 

(3) "The Japanese military unfit have been with- 
drawn from the population of the islands, and methodic- 
ally supplanted by the veterans of the Japanese-Chinese 



*"Valor of Ignorance," by Homer Lea. 



134 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

and the Russo-Japanese wars, and the Japanese mihtary 
occupation of Hawaii is tentatively accompHshed." 

(4) It may be roughly stated that the population of 
these islands is in the neighborhood of one hundred and 
ninety thousand, of which seventy-nine thousand are Jap- 
nese, and are guarded by less in numbers, than a full 
regiment of United States troops. 

(5) The influx of Japanese into Hawaii has been 
entirely political and the outcome will be military. 

Third : The further cause for Japanese discontent is 
the anti-alien ruling and educational question by the State 
of California. 

Fourth : The objection of the United States to the con- 
cession of Magdalena Bay (Mexico) to Japanese inter- 
ests. 

Any of these questions may, within a short period of 
time, result in "serious misunderstandings." 

Those responsible for the country's foreign policy have 
not settled these pending questions and procrastination 
in favor of internal politics is diplomatically suicidal. 

The progress of commerce, industry and land values, 
has produced a distinct class which no longer finds its 
intelligence represented in Congress. 

This class or better element rarely exercises the fran- 
chise, or cares for political gifts from the party in ]>o\ver. 

George II. said to Pitt : 

"You have taught me to look for the voice of the 
people in other places than in the House of Commons." 

How surely does this apply to the administration of 
today. 

The general opulence of the country has brought about 
the building of a wall around it composed of self super- 
iority and arrogance. This is regarded in i)r'ulc by a 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 135 

majority of the people, and thought to be impenetrable 
against attack, due to the reliance on the vast natural re- 
sources contained therein. 

For years it has been the hysterical boast and actual 
popular belief, that not only could the country defend 
itself against foreign invasion, but could even conquer a 
first class foreign power. 

This conceit is concrete in the Congress (as developed 
in Mr. Clark's speech) and out of it. For years the policy 
has been one of military neglect. 

It seems to be forgotten that there exists an East and 
West monarchical frontier to the North extending over 
three thousand miles in length and the whole of Latin 
America extending from the Rio Grande (the Southern 
frontier) to Patagonia, surging with dislike and contempt 
for "Americans." The extreme western outlying terri- 
tory of the United States is at the door of Japan, and is 
today absolutely at the disposal of that nation, while the 
time consumed in crossing the Atlantic and Pacific has 
been reduced to hours and days. 

The wall has a breach in it, to say very little of the 
breach in the inner wall, viz : the practically undefended 
Pacific Coast. 

It seems to be forgotten that the forty-eight sovereign 
States with their consolidated thriving populaion, more 
than twice that of Great Britain or three-tenths greater 
than that of the German Empire, must through the Fed- 
eral government enter the field of international politics 
to assert its power, whether it wishes to do so or not, or 
be subject to humiliation in view of Atlantic and Pacific 
expansion. 

The position taken by administration after administra- 
tion in relation to the "Monroe Doctrine," not only makes 



136 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

this imperative, but it demands an immediate military 
power equal to the pretentions under which the Monroe 
Doctrine can alone be sustained against the first serious 
foreign protest or aggression. 

Doubtless Mr. Bryce, the former British ambassador to 
the United States, was cognizant of these and other facts 
when he said in his speech at Stanford University, ''The 
world is still watching the experiment of the republican 
form of government in the United States." 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 137 



CHAPTER XVH. 

It has been notorious that necessary funds requisitioned 
by the Chief of Staff for the legitimate purposes of miH- 
tary maintenance and equipment, have on more than one 
occasion been materially reduced by Congress. 

Per contra, Congress after Congress has entertained 
and passed appropriations for pension funds for "veter- 
ans" of the Spanish War to the extent of nearly fifty 
thousand applications whereas only thirty-eight thousand 
soldiers of all arms (regular and volunteer) landed on 
Spanish territory during activities. It is safe and fair to 
say that many are drawing pensions today, who never 
saw the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico or the Philippines. 

It is much the same with the other pension fund, the 
legacy of the Civil War. Instead of the amount of the 
annual distribution consistently decreasing by reason of 
the deaths of the beneficiaries, it inconsistently increases 
with the death roll until the annual distribution alone 
would go far to liquidate the national debt of most coun- 
tries. This inconsistency, after fifty years, is brought 
about by the payment in full of the back pension from the 
date of claim, without regard to disability, and to the 
widows of ex-soldiers, irrespective of the date of the 
marriage ; for instance : An ex-soldier drawing a pension 
and 79 years of age may contract marriage with a young 
woman. On his death the wife is entitled to draw his 
pension for the term of her life, which taken at this date 
may be another fifty years, so the pensioner or his heir 
is eligible to draw what is equivalent to nearly one hun- 
dred years of pension for, in instances, a service of sixty 
days only. Certainly a noble gratuity from a grateful 



138 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

republic so far as money is concerned and paradoxical 
when compared with the treatment of Schley by the gov- 
ernment then in power, which was paradoxical when the 
attitude of the people towards him was that of gratitude 
and praise. 

This pension is largely absorbed by those who partici- 
pated in the Civil War of 1861 to 1865. That is to say: 
the Federal, or ex-soldiers of the United States alone and 
their heirs, are beneficiaries. The ex-Confederate soldier 
or Southern participant is ineligible to benefit from this 
enormous appropriation, although he and the whole South 
is a compulsory and heavy contributor to the fund. 

There are many dissatisfied persons in the Southern 
States of the United States today, and it does appear in- 
consistent that the population of the Southern tier of 
States, fifty years after the war and for another fifty or 
more years to come shall pay an ever increasing indemnity 
to their conquerors, when the conquered are re-established 
in citizenship and live under the same flag. 

Indicative of the Southern feeling in this respect, the 
following is told : 

Not long since, two old soldiers, an ex-Federal and an 
ex-Confederate, were chumming together in the bar of 
the Kimball House, Atlanta, Georgia. 

"Ah, Johnnie !" remarked the northern man, "we cer- 
tainly licked creation out of you." 

"Yes! niavl)C yer did," rcj^lied the southerner a trifle 
sourlv ; "but jedging from the size of yer pension fund, 
I reckon we wounded every ^damnedyankee that es- 
caped." 



*A Soullurn l;uly (a descendcnt of John C. Calhoun), of 
MontKomcry, Alabama, told the writer some years ago, that 
she was twenty before she knew tliat "daiiuicdyankcc" was not 
one word. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 139 

The increase of the pension fund is shown as follows : 

War with Spain — Beneficiaries, 29,015. 

War of 1812— Widozvs, 199. 

War with Mexico— Survivors, 1,142; Widozvs, 5,123. 

Indian Wars — Survivors, 1,066; Widozvs, 2,330. 

Total pensioners on roll June 30, 1913, 820,200. 

Total Disbursements for Pensions for all Wars : 

War of the Revolution (estimate), $70,000,000: 

War of 1812 (service pension), $45,923,014.46: 

Indian wars (service pension), $12,241,273.61 

War with Mexico (service pension), $47,232,572.34; 

Civil War, $4,294,596,944.47 (1861 to 1865); 

War with Spain and insurrection in the Philippine 
Islands, $42,185,230.84; 

Regular establishment, $28,461,369.52; 

Unclassified, $16,499,419.44. (to 1913). 

Total disbursements for war pensions, $4,557,539,824.68. 

In 1867 there were 36,482 new claims allowed, bring- 
ing the total beneficiaries to 155,474, as to 69,565 men 
and 83,618 widows, making the annual distribution $20, 
784,789.69. 

In 1877 the beneficiaries were 232,104 as to 128,723 
men and 103,381 widows and the annual distribution $28,- 
182,821.72. 

In 1887 the beneficiaries were 406,007, as to 306,298 
men and 99,709 widows, and the annual distribution ^73,- 
572,997.08. 

In 1897 there were 976,014 beneficiaries as to 746,829 
men and 229,185 widows, and the annual distribution 
$139,949,717.35. 

In 1907 there were 967,371 beneficiaries as to 680,934 
men and 286,437 widows, and the annual distribution was 
$138,155,412.46. 



140 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

In 1912 there were 860,294 beneficiaries as to 538,294 
men and 322,000 widows, and the annual distribution was 
$152,986,43372. 

In 1913 there were 820,200 beneficiaries as to 503,633 
men and 316,567 widows with the annual disbursement 
of $174,171,600.00 paid in war pensions and $2,543,246.39 
for that year's administration of it, or a grand total, in- 
cluding the cost of administration, paid in pensions of 
$4,461,097,319.65. 

Total number of original applications during fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1913, 27,881. 

Total number of original claims allowed for fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1913, 19,346. 

A financial policy that permits this annual increase is 
beyond conception, when the majority of the northern 
participants in the Civil War are dead and the youngest 
living ex-northern soldier is over 65 and very few under 
72. It is even more extraordinary when that policy re- 
fuses to provide, in advance, adecjuate funds to be espec- 
ially allocated for preparedness in war, or to not grant 
without quibble the financial requisitions made by trained, 
efficient and permanent United States officers of the War 
Department who kiion' the necessities. Such a policy is 
preposterous in the face of conditions pertaining to for- 
eign relations. 

That the War Department has been unable to obtain 
adequate funds from Congress for its efficient mainten- 
ance, or funds to procure reserves of ammunition, war 
material, equipment and general mihtary efficiency of the 
male population in advance of actual necessity, is to be 
accounted for by absolute neglect by that body to pay 
attention to a paramount demand, 'i'iie comment on this 
question must not be taken as an objection to pensions for 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 141 

veterans. It is to show the inconsistency in the growth of • 
the fund as compared with the decrease of beneficiaries. 
Without the former the income tax would be unneces- 
sary. The great excess in pensions has grown up under 
the struggle of both parties to control the soldier vote. 
The pension money was raised by indirect taxation which 
was not felt by any particular interest. With the income 
tax swallowed up by the pensions the income taxpayer is 
sure to develop an active opposition to further pension 
legislation. 

The colossal cost of maintenance of the Eederal and 
States governm.ents collectively, when computed as a 
whole, is far in excess of that of any form of monarchical 
government existing, and yet without an army of defense 
or oflfense. 






142 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 



CHAPTER XVHI. 
Japan. 

In 1906 the Governor of California said in a message 
to the Legislature : 

"Our laws regard intermarriage (with Japanese) as 
miscegenation." 

"They cannot become good American citizens. It is 
useless to attempt to make them such." 

"It is useless to think they can ever mix with our peo- 
ple and become absorbed into our body politic." 

In 1905 the California Legislature by unanimous vote 
of Assembly and Senate adopted and declared "that unre- 
stricted Japanese immigration is a menace to the State." 

The Board of Education of San Francisco excluded 
Japanese from the public schools, and the California Su- 
preme Court declared these acts constitutional. 

These acts contravene the stipulations of the treaty and 
the Federal Government cannot control them. This atti- 
tude was first voiced by Governor Gage of California in 
his biennial message to the State government in 1900, and 
anti-Japanese legislation also tentatively exists in the 
state legislatures of Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Ari- 
zona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Hawaii. 

Two platforms or political programmes in recent na- 
tional conventions included promised national legislation 
against Asiatics, which included Japanese. The candi- 
dates for the Presidency (Independent and Democrat) 
were rejected at the (1908) election embodying this plat- 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 143 

form, and diplomatic controversy with Japan was, for a 
time, suspended. 

At the convention one of the two candidates adopted 
and incorporated in its platform such sentences as : "and 
shall protect American civilization from the contamina- 
tion of Asiatic conditions." 

*"We oppose Asiatic immigration . . . which tends to 
lower our high standard of morality." 

Baron Hayashi, Japanese minister of foreign affairs, 
demanded and further stated that the Imperial Japanese 
Government would continue to demand of the United 
States the same rights and immunities for the Japanese, 
transitory and resident in the United States, as are grant- 
ed the aliens of other nations (Italy for instance) in ac- 
cordance with the treaty stipulations. 

The legislative acts of the various States have from 
time to time directly violated or disregarded the rights of 
foreign nations, and the difficulty of the United States to 
continue in friendly relations with foreign nations is 
recognized as a fixed quantity everywhere. 

Why do these conditions exist? Because treaties are 
violated or disregarded by State class (labor especially) 
legislation, lobbyists, representing great corporations 
whose powers are as great politically as they are financ- 
ially, and the conflict of sectional State interests with 
Eederal policy. 

These, together with the indifference of the masses, 
to what happens abroad relating to the tariff forces na- 
tional legislation to conflict with foreign treaties. The 



-3% of the male and 4% of the total female population of the 
United States are divorced. In 1895 there were 10,500 homi- 
cides in the United States; in 1896, 10,662; 1912, 7.5 per 100,000 
of population. 



144 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

utter irresponsibility and weakness of the system can only 
result sooner or later in war. 

The relations with Japan are strained over this ques- 
tion. The United States also arbitrarily has prohibited 
the colonization by Japanese of a certain area on the west 
coast of Mexico. 

The Mexican government ofifered no such objection 
(on the contrary it courted such colonization) any more 
so than it objected to the colonization of Chihuahua by 
Mormons, United States citizens, or the development and 
practical colonization of the oil area (4900 square miles) 
in Vera Cruz by United States citizens. 

In other words the United States has said to Japan: 
"You can't come here and you can't go there. We will 
dictate where you may or may not go." 

In the meantime the United States' expansion in the 
Pacific and the fortifications erected at the doors of Japan 
are offensive, and Japan is resentful. 

Is "America" prepared to force its issues? Can "Amer- 
ica" enforce the positions it has assumed? Certainly not! 
In its present state of unpreparedness, the "Americans" 
and not the Japanese are alone responsible for the coming 
conflict. Territorial America offers all that is necessary 
for the maintenance of its millions and many millions 
more to come. Japan is territorially cramped in compar- 
ison and must expand by emigration. The position can- 
not be remedied by politics or dijilomacy when millions 
of men, devout in their religious tranquillity, religious in 
their thousands of years of dynastic law and content in 
their pitiful poverty, yet fierce in their warlike heredity, 
demand the opportunity to expand and that demand is 
denied them by a people who cannot enforce the denial. 

The recent military victories of these silent Asiatics 
over China and Russia were great lessons. So was the 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 145 

development of the fighting strength of the Bulgarian 
army in western Europe last year. In two decades of 
secret preparation the lesson was told to an incredulous 
world and then forgotten. Since Japan sprung to modern 
military efficiency in two decades, how much more efficient 
may it become in two more decades? 

Japan will be the real cause for the cessation of the 
United States evasion of international responsibilities. 
The causes for this war even now outweigh the causes 
for peace, hence the reason for the former. 

With nations of similar religious, political and socio- 
logical conditions, diplomacy might answer, but here the 
Occident and the Orient are at variance. Traditions of 
thousands of years are opposed to the political chicanery 
of a few decades. Hence permanent diplomatic adjust- 
ment is impossible. 

Great Britain would not ally itself with the United 
States as against Japan because of its treaty with Japan. 
The treaty of 1905 between Great Britain and Japan 
agrees on : 

"The maintenance of the territorial rights of the high 
contracting parties in the region of Eastern Asia and 
defence of their special interests in the said regions." 

Article II. Should either .... be invaded in war in 
defence of . . . special interests, the other party will at 
once come to the assistance of its ally and both parties 
will conduct a war in common . . . with any power or 
powers involved in such war." 

Article VII. "The conditions under which armed as- 
sistance shall be offered by either power will be arranged 
by the naval and military authorities of the high contract- 
ing parties, who will from time to time consult one an- 
other fully and freely on all questions of mutual interest." 



146 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

The treaty is for ten years and continues indefinitely in 
effect after that period subject to one year's renunciation 
by either party. The ten years expire August 12th, 1915. 

Germany is too busy in Europe to bother. France is 
also too busy in Europe and Africa. Russia has no Pa- 
cific interests. Great Britain has an offensive and defen- 
sive alliance with Japan, and the only reason for peace is 
commercialism. 

The common argument is that Japan has not the money 
wherewith to make war. It is interesting to know that 
Japan pays its interest and has good credit, whereas many 
States of this Union have defaulted interest and repay- 
ment of capital to foreign creditors in sums amounting 
to millions. Not only defaulted but repudiated. In Eu- 
rope, Japan can borrow colossal sums if forced to do so. 

The factors, of the fundamental principle, that are 
causing Japan to change are invisible at the moment. The 
change is unconscious and extends over decades, but will 
stand out sharply defined later in history as having culmi- 
nated, perhaps, between 1880 and 1040. 

Political transformations and war have not always been 
the precursor of the fall of empires, nor have the spark- 
ling events in history, nor the violence of them, solely 
impressed the world. It has been the modification of ideas 
and the change of thought that has chiefly determined the 
historical events which have crystallized into substantial 
history, in the looking backward on thoir full develop- 
ment. 

Japan is in the epoch of transition and has been so for 
forty years and the collective psychological law of mental 
unity prevails in Japan, antagonistic in its relations and 
attitude towards the United States. 

Individual opinion counts for nothing when the masses 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 147 

mentally or physically collect. The psychology is such 
that mental unity is collective in masses and forms in its 
entirety a new and powerful creation. 

The mind of the Japanese is peculiarly sensitive to such 
phenomena and the day that incubation matures will be 
the day for preparedness. The nature of the suggestion 
will make Japan of one mind regardless of the superior 
intelligence of individuals apart from agglomeration. 

Count von Reventlow, a noted writer on naval matters 
and one of the mouthpieces of the German land barons 
and who has great influence with the German govern- 
ment, said in April, 1914: 

'Tt is undeniable that President Wilson's Mexican 
policy has caused much ill will in influential commercial 
circles in Germany and the United States no longer 
enjoys the sympathy of Germany as it did in the past." 

Count von Reventlow advocates a closer understanding 
between Germany and Japan. The newspapers are taking 
up the subject of the relations of the United States and 
Japan. The Deutsches Tagezeitung in an editorial article 
issues a strong warning against Germany allowing herself 
to be played against Japan during the present dispute be- 
tween the latter country and the United States over the 
alien land question. 

The Vienna Journal, one of the most influential news- 
papers at the Austrian capital, editorially reviews the 
events between Japan and the United States which have 
led up to the present situation, and says the danger of 
war between these two countries is greater than ever 
before. The paper points out that in case Japan decides 
on war it would be to her advantage to act before the 
Panama canal is opened. The indications are, it said, that 
Japan will secretly assist President Huerta of Mexico 



148 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

with war materials and money. The paper concludes by- 
saying Japan will shut out the United States and send her 
emigrants to Mexico, which will create a new danger for 
the United States.* 

The understanding between Japan and the Huerta 
Government was appreciated by the United States Charge 
d'Affaires at Mexico when he sent the following cable to 
the Administration at Washington in ^larch : 

"The officers of the Japanese battleship will reach }^Iex- 
ico City next week and will be entertained in Mexico of- 
ficially by Huerta and his government with extravagant 
expressions of welcome and friendship. The incident at 
this time is significant and unfortunate. I think I see in 
this carefully timed incident the fine hand of Sir Lionel 
Garden." 

This cable aroused the State Department from a con- 
dition of lethargy. 



♦Especially so in the event of military combination. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 149 



CHAPTER XIX. 

This Republic is oblivious to the vast military and 
naval power of Japan, to the hereditary militant char- 
acter of its people, who for a thousand years have lived 
in the shadows of their armored war ideals. It is obliv- 
ious to the black cloud of the tempest that is rumbling in 
the West and to preliminary flashes of that tempest, 
personified in the Japanese secret service emissaries 
who are occasionally caught in the fortresses on the 
Pacific Coast with United States military data in their 
possession ; to the shipments to Japan of high class war 
material such as is not in practical use in any military 
or naval arsenal of this government ; Vanadium steel 
deck plates, gun shields and projectiles for instance. It 
is oblivious to the fact that 91,000 Japanese today occupy 
the Hawaiian Islands ; 59,000 Japanese, 98 per cent men 
of between 18 and 40 years of age are on the west coast 
of Mexico, a large percentage conscript trained, and 
130,000 on the Pacific Coast between the Canadian and 
Mexican frontiers. The nucleus of an excellent army on 
mobilization for Pacific Coast occupation. 

Los Angeles is defenceless to a landing in its vicinity, 
the occupation of which means the submission of all 
smaller towns from the Coast, east to the boundary line 
of the desert and from San Diego to within gun range of 
San Francisco. 

These smaller towns are defenceless because they are 
dependent on Los Angeles which has the majority of 
wealth and population of Southern California. 



150 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

Strategically no fortification can defend Los Angeles 
from a land attack, due to the topography of the adjacent 
country, and must capitulate immediately the hills in its 
vicinity were occupied by an enemy. 

Fort Rosecrans at Point Loma, San Diego, may be 
disregarded entirely. It would be ignored by an enemy 
and must capitulate for the mere reason of its isolation. 
The control or the destruction of the Santa Fe single 
line of railroad between Los Angeles and San Diego 
would clinch the isolation, although its destruction would 
be unnecessary, as it might be used for the transportation 
of Japanese allies from the South. 

Japan's large and fast mercantile fleet will be used for 
the transportation of troops. It being now possible to land 
a quarter of a million trained men within a few weeks on 
the Pacific coast. The first unit of the army, consisting 
of a hundred thousand men, within four weeks, landing 
in the State of Washington ; the second and third division, 
landing in rapid succession in Central and Southern Cali- 
fornia. 

To mobilize and transport a United States army with 
its equipment and impedimenta, to repulse any one of 
these divisions, would take from four to six months. 
Japan in time alone, is forty per cent nearer to the Pacific 
Coast that the flower of the United States army and 
possesses greater facility in placing its military units, in 
that water transportation is superior to the single track 
railroads which must be employed by United States troops 
from the East. 

It seems incredible that without the least obstruction 
Japan can place an army corps on the Pacific Coast in 
a shorter time than it would take to march a third of 
that force from Los Angeles to the environs of San 
Francisco. 



AT THE EDGE OE THE PIT 151 

The under-gunned and under-manned fortifications on 
the Pacific coast (excepting- San Francisco) will all be 
taken by a military assault from the land side and long 
before any army with adequate equipment from the East 
can attempt to prevent an occupation, Oregon and Wash- 
ington, Northern, Central and Southern California will 
be in possession of the enemy. 

It will be at this period that the 58,000 (fifty-eight 
thousand) Japanese now domiciled in Mexico and the 
100,000 (one hundred thousand) Japanese of military age 
now on the Pacific Coast between the Mexican and Can- 
adian frontiers, will attempt to mobilize. 

This, taken in connection with a warlike condition ex- 
isting in Mexico, will make the position even more 
difficult. Where will the 80,000 or 100,000 trained and 
untrained men constituting the army of defense be sent? 
To which point? 

Concentrate them in any one of the Pacific Coast cen- 
ters of Japanese occupation and the other centers remain 
undefended. 

Split the force and it is out-numbered and out-gener- 
alled by topography alone. 

Centralia, Washington, will be the objective point. De- 
barkation will take place on the open beaches near Grey's 
Harbor, out of gim range of any fortification. Centralia 
commands Seattle, Portland, Tacoma and Oiympia, with 
all the fortifications at the mouth of the Columbia river 
and Puget sound. 

None of these fortifications will prevent such a landing 
and today are quite inefifective. 

Bremerton and the U. S. Navy Yard is less than two 
days and the rest less than seven days march from Cen- 
tralia, the Japanese center, with Seattle their left and 
Portland their right flanks. 



152 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

The military value of the Columbia river and the great 
inland harbors, the latter accessible through the Strait of 
Juan de Fuca, will be fully r<^alized by the enemy. 

The ports protecting these harbors have less combined 
artillery power than the Japanese battle ship "Kongo" 
alone, and under the scheme of investment will never 
fire a gun for the reason that the whole system of defense 
of the Pacific Coast is obsolete and poor strategically. 

Southern California is even in a worse \x>sition. Its 
area covers 75 per cent of desert and mountains. The 
trend of the mountain chain, the San Rafael, San Gabriel 
and San Bernardino, is generally Northwesterly and 
Southeasterly, except the San Jacinto range, which is 
nearly North and South. These ranges form an Easterly 
flank some forty miles from the ocean and within its 
boundaries there exists one of the most fertile territories 
in the world. 

The army of occupation will have possession of this 
territory. 

To the East, and in the rear of these great natural bar- 
riers are the Colorado and Alojave deserts. The Colorado 
desert is, in places, two hundred and sixty-seven feet be- 
low sea level. Sand and salt. The Mojave; silica, alkali 
and volcanic intrusions, the latter showing their black 
necks and eroded cores over thousands of square miles. 
A climate both frigid and torrid ; waterless at the sur- 
face, a portion of the globe that is dead. It is across this 
desert that relief must come to Southern California from 
the East to scale the barren walls of these mountains four 
to eight thousand feet high from the desert. This wall 
has a front over three hundred miles long. The nearest 
water is over 130 miles to the East in the rear of the re- 




*= 



^;* it 





^l~^.^' 



■^v^-a; > .■ 



ViSi' 






AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 153 

lieving force, and its base one thousand miles in its rear 
acros the desert. 

There are three passes through these mountains, viz : 
The Saugus Pass, at the junction of the San Raphael and 
San Gabriel mountains; the Cajon Pass, dividing the San 
Gabriel and San Bernardino range and the San Jacinto 
Pass at the north junction of the Santa Rosa spur and 
the San Jacinto range. 

The first movement of the Japanese will be to control 
these passes and this would occur before relief could be 
attempted. 

As the vast natural resources of Southern California, 
profligate in their luxuriance, will be in their rear, it will 
mean capitulation of that sphere without a fight. 

The stragetic position is impossible to overcome. The 
same applies to Central California with the command of 
the apex and west side of the Tehachapi Pass, in the 
Tehachapi Mountains. With the exception of the latter, 
all the other passes are within four days march of Los 
Angeles. 

Rapid contentration of force to any one point can be 
made in a few hours from the West or Japanese side. 
From the East of the mountains, or relief side, the same 
movement will take weeks. 

In the meantime the Hawaiian Islands will be taken 
from within, occupied and formed into a base of Japanese 
naval operations. The Philippines will pass simultane- 
ously with the first gtm fire. The capitulation of San 
Francisco will depend on its water supply being defended 
and the possibility of its defense will be dependent on the 
first occupation of the Truckee Valley on the Central 
Pacifiic Railroad. 

If the Pilarcitos, San Andreas and the Crystal Springs 
reservoirs are attacked by the army of invasion of Cen- 



154 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

tral California and the sources of supply in the San Mateo 
mountains are controlled by the Japanese, the occupation 
of the Pacific Coast in its entirety will be complete long 
before the arrival of the first United States army of 
defense. 

These conditions are possible now and remain possible 
even if Japan declared war before its first army of in- 
vasion left Japanese waters.* 

The probability of their success is intensified by a 
sharp descent without warning, in view of the chaotic 
state of military unpreparedness of the United States and 
with its next to useless militia forming a part of the first 
line of military efficiency, officered, as it necessarily must 
be, by civil and politician-generals, in a modern war, 
against modern armaments and training and against sol- 
diers whose women look upon their return from battle in 
the light of a digrace, and whose religion alone is an in- 
centive to court death on the field. 

It is probable that none of this will occur, but the ques- 
tion arises : Why should the existing state of military un- 
preparedness continue, by leaving open a door on the 
dangerous side? 



*Thcse strategic positions were first brought to the notice of 
the writer by reading llomer Lea's "Valor of Ignorance," Har- 
per and Brothers, publishers. Prior to reading Mr. Lea's book 
the writer spent some years on tliese deserts and in these moun- 
tains and subsequently personally visited every pass, mountain 
range, fortification and city mentioned herein in order to sub- 
stantiate Mr. Lea's conclusions, which beyond doubt are correct. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 155 



CHAPTER XX. 

The skeptic will ask : But what about the Navy ? That 
question is easily answered in this connection. It is divid- 
ed at this moment between two oceans. The majority of 
its units are on the Atlantic and are unavailable for the 
defense of the Pacific Coast. Only one port for crippled 
ships to repair and no available coal except that from the 
Atlantic coast or foreign sources. What the conflict be- 
tween the navies will develop on their confronting each 
other ofif the Pacific Coast after the Japanese invasion 
of it, is dependent on the fortune of war, modern equip- 
ment and brilliant handling of the respective forces. Win 
or lose the result will spell disaster, as the Navy could 
not expel the invaders once they are in possession of the 
Pacific Coast. Even at this moment Japanese artillerists 
are with the Mexican forces on the United States fron- 
tier at Mexacali, California, awaiting the Mexican issue. 

Something akin to polite ill feeling has developed in 
Europe and it is demonstrated by certain European 
powers pointedly ignoring the coming Panama Exposi- 
tion at San Francisco. 

The vital national questions of the moment involve the 
Japanese situation and its complexities due to the contra- 
vention of a treaty ; the Mexican situation ; the Panama 
Canal fortification and toll question involving the contra- 
vention of a treaty. The financing of Nicaragua by 
Brown Brothers and the Morgan Syndicate (another 
story). The internal strike question which again devel- 
oped in Colorado in which hundreds were shot and many 



156 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

killed in open conflict with State troops which is tanta- 
mount to an armed revolutionary condition. 

The country appears impotent to prevent such occur- 
ences and the State to quell them, so the politicians wal- 
low about in a confused sea of internal and international 
misunderstandings that can only mature in terrific strife 
for their final adjustments. 

Diplomatic "America" has arrived at the edge of the 
pit. 

Whisps that show the angle of the wind, columned 
eddies precursors of a storm. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 



157 



COMPARATIVE NAVIES OF 1914 



Effective Fighting Fleets. 



United States. 
Classification 

Battleships 

Battle Cruisers , 

Armored Cruisers 

Protected, first class 

light 

" second class 

" third class 

Unprotected 

Scouts 

Torpedo Vessels 

Torpedo Boat Destroyers... 

Torpedo Boats 

Submarines 

Compliment 64,780 

Reserve Militia 7,526 
Appropriation for 1914, 

about $140,800,000. 
No efficient foreign mer- 
cantile marine. 



Built Bld'g 
33 4 



14 
3 



15 

3 

3 

2 

46 

22 

25 



*Japan. 
Built Bld'g 



17 

13 
2 



1 

4 



13 

4 
4 



3 

14 59 

50 
22 13 2 

Compliment 51,054 

Reserve 114,000 

Expenditure for 1914 

$46,500,000. 
Large mercantile ma- 
rine available for trans- 
ports and coalers. 



*The British-built battle-cruiser, Kongo, is the only armored 
vessel completed for this power during the past twelve months. 
Designed and built by Messrs. Vickers, the Kongo carries eight 
14-inch and sixteen 6-inch guns on a displacement of 27,500 tons, 
and is therefore the largest and most powerful armed battle- 
cruiser yet completed. Three sister ships, the Haruna, Hiyei, 
and Kirishima, are under construction in Japan, as well as the 
battleship Fuso, and three other vessels of the same type \yhose 
names have not yet transpired. These ships were originally 
credited with an armament of ten 15-inch guns, but it is now 
understood they will carry twelve 14-inch and sixteen 6-inch. 



158 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

Comparative Standing of the Two Armies at this 

Date, 1914. 
United States. 

Regular establishment, 84,869. 

Annual cost not including fortifications or military 
academy, $94,266,145 or $1,110.72 per annum per man. 

Total organized militia, 122,674. Cost defrayed by in- 
dividual States ; unknown. 

System voluntary. 

Unorgantaed militia reserve, all able bodied men be- 
tween 18 and 40. Cost, no record. 

Japan. 

War strength first and second line forces only, active 
army 980,000. 

Annual cost $48,800,000 or $49.79 per man per annum. 
Reserves — 

Second Reserve, 2,000.000. 

Third Reserve, all able to bear arms. 

System, 2 to 3 years. Conscription, no substitution. 

Had 1,500,000 men engaged in war against Russia — 
1904. 



AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 159 



June, 1914. — "The Japanese cruiser Idzuma, cleared 
for action, sir, is bearing this way." 

It was the night after the battle of Vera Cruz. 

The lookout on the bridge of the flagship California, at 
anchor in the harbor of Mazatlan, on the west coast of 
Mexico, made the report to the officer of the deck. 

Admiral Howard, commander-in-chief of the Pacific 
squadron, was notified. 

"War with Mexico" was pending. 

But why should a cruiser of Japan, a neutral power, 
come into a Mexican port ready to give battle? 

This was the question that Admiral Howard asked at 
once of Captain Muriama of the Idzuma. 

Captain Muriama's answer was evasive. 

But his little brown men, stripped to the waist, were on 
the battle deck. 

The situation developed to a crisis three hours later 
when the lights of the Japanese cruiser, which had been 
burning brightly, were suddenly put out. 

From forecastle to quarterdeck the ship was in com- 
plete darkness. 

The act in itself, in a neutral harbor, was a hostile one. 

Admiral Howard got his men to their gun stations. 

Throughout the long night, the crew of the California 
stood by, waiting. 

The next day five of Uncle Sam's torpedo flotilla 
steamed into the harbor of Mazatlan. 

They took station, by order of Admiral Howard, in the 
form of an arc, well in toward the Idzuma. 



160 AT THE EDGE OF THE PIT 

Warlike preparations on the Japanese cruiser ceased. 

There was nothing more to be said. 

War with Mexico was not declared. The occupation of 

Vera Cruz did not lead to an invasion of Mexico, as was 

at first feared. 

But 10,000 bluejackets and marines of the Pacific 
squadron are still wondering what part would have been 
played by the Mikado's empire if there had been a war. 

Admiral Howard reported the Idzuma incident to the 
navy department just as it occurred. If any diplomatic 
correspondence on this delicate subject was ever ex- 
changed between the United States and Japan, it has 
never come to light. 

Captain Muriama, schooled in Japanese diplomacy, has 

been silent on the subject. 

He has taken every opportunity to assure "His Excel- 
lency, Admiral Howard, of the distinguished considera- 
tion of His Majesty the Mikado of Japan.' —Suppressed 
news telegraphed by the United Press. 



H 129 79 












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